Following Key House Hearing, Norton Says Completion of St. Elizabeths DHS Consolidation in Sight

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After participating in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing yesterday on a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters at St. Elizabeths in Ward 8 of the District of Columbia, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said the DHS consolidation at St. Elizabeths now appears settled. She said the GAO's report, released yesterday, criticized some DHS and General Services Administration (GSA) planning practices at St. Elizabeths, but did not say that consolidation should not be completed. In fact, GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Norman Dong announced that GSA will name the contractor for the large Center Building for the DHS secretary and top officials this month. The GAO critique was that DHS and GSA did not fully conform to leading capital decision practices intended to help agencies effectively plan and procure assets. Far from implying that the project should not be completed, GAO announced that Congress should consider requiring DHS and GSA to revise their headquarters plan in advance of funding. GSA testified that it is updating its Master Plan to be included in its fiscal year 2016 budget request.

Also released yesterday was a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report, whose two major findings further indicated that the project will be completed – consolidation of DHS at St. Elizabeths would improve DHS' ability to carry out its mission, and finishing the consolidated headquarters will save taxpayers as much as $1 billion over the next 30 years. The report recommends that Congress fully fund the President's fiscal year 2015 budget request of $323 million for the consolidation and that Congress and the Administration work together to facilitate consolidation. In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its fiscal year 2015 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which provides virtually all of the funds requested by the Administration, over $250.5 million, for continuing work on the DHS headquarters, as Norton requested. The Senate Appropriations Committee-approved fiscal year 2015 DHS appropriations bill provides another $48.6 million for consolidation at St. Elizabeths, although the Administration requested $73 million. The St. Elizabeths project received $190 million in fiscal year 2014.

"Yesterday's hearing, where the GAO report assumed completion of the project, the Senate report recommended completion, and the almost full Senate appropriation of the President's request show it is going to happen," Norton said.

The first building, the Coast Guard headquarters, was completed on time and on budget because Norton was able to get almost $1.4 billion for that building at one time as a part of stimulus funding. Since then, however, annual appropriations have failed to allocate the amounts needed to complete the complex on time, leading to steeply increased construction costs.

The GAO report is found here.

The Senate report is found here.