Latest D.C. Job Stats Show 25 Percent of Workers at DHS Construction Site are D.C. Residents

September 19, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the latest statistics on D.C. residents employed on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters construction site at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Ward 8. DHS headquarter will be the first federal agency located east of the Anacostia River.

The report shows that 356 D.C. residents are working at the site, most on construction, and account for 25 percent of the total workers there. Although federal law prohibits preferential hiring from the jurisdiction where federal construction is taking place and prohibits all percentage hiring for any reason, Norton has required aggressive outreach to D.C. residents, which is permitted. The 25 percent of total workers at the site is high considering that D.C. residents account for only 10 percent of the regional population, and considering the proportion of D.C. residents generally working on construction projects in the District.

Norton, who requires monthly hiring reports on the project, also holds regular congressional hearings, roundtables, community meetings, and meetings with the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency with jurisdiction over the project, and goes on unannounced visits to the site. She is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, which has jurisdiction over GSA. Earlier this month, the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee included $56 million for the Coast Guard Building headquarters, and the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee included $65 million for GSA's construction and acquisition projects, which Norton helped to secure.

Work is expected to continue on the project for several years. Norton said, "These figures show a good-faith effort to hire D.C. residents, and increasing success in doing so. However, with over 6,000people applying for jobs on this single site and not nearly that many jobs available there, I am fighting every day for funding and will continue to require outreach and to do frequent monitoring and to urge monitoring on all sites, public and private, to see that D.C. residents get their fair share of jobs throughout the city."

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