Land Transfer Bill Passes Congress with Double Dividend- November 16, 2006

Land Transfer Bill Passes Congress with Double Dividend in Structural Payment
Plus Sites for New Housing and Facilities
November 16, 2006

Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Federal and D.C. Government Real Property Act, H.R. 3699, the land transfer bill that she and Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) sponsored, is headed to the White House for the President's signature, after receiving final Senate approval this afternoon. Norton almost got Senate passage of the bill, which swaps valuable federal land for District-owned land, before Congress recessed on September 30. Passage followed weeks of negotiations by Norton with the Office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) concerning land needed by the Architect of the Capitol. However, as the Senate wound down in the early hours of that day, Norton was told there were "holds" on the bill, a mistake for which all involved subsequently apologized. The Senate today made good on a promise to make the D.C. bill a first priority after recess. Norton got the House to pass the bill after getting it through four committees and to the floor in the final hours before the October recess, even with its packed agenda and bills of major national significance still pending in both houses of Congress, and was disappointed that a mistake in the Senate had slowed the bill.

The major federal sites transferred are Poplar Point, where a soccer stadium for D.C. United is planned, and Reservation 13, the site where D.C. General Hospital is now located. The land transfer bill also is necessary to fully develop several Anacostia waterfront sites. Norton has pressed the bill as particularly important because the revenue that will be generated from the development of the land will count as partial compensation for the District's federally imposed structural deficit.

The Real Property Act will generate the first federal revenue for the District in compensation for some of the costs created by the structural imbalance, documented in a 2003 report by the General Accountability Office (GAO) to be between $470 million and $1.1 billion. The GAO found that the structural imbalance results from federal mandates, such as federal removal from the tax rolls of more than 40% of the District's best land; uncompensated services provided by the District to 200,000 federal employees working in the District; a federal ban on taxing commuters, although most travel from the suburbs to federal jobs here; and the District's responsibility for several state costs, even though the city is not a state and lacks the broad tax base of a state.