Major Development Project among Norton Bills Awaiting President's Signature (10/1/08)

Washington, D.C. - Following Senate passage, two of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) priorities are on their way to the President for signature. The Old Post Office Redevelopment Act concludes the Congresswoman's ten-year struggle to proceed with development of the nearly vacant iconic treasure at 11th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The Federal Protective Service Guard Contracting Reform Act, which protects federal employees and sites from private security contractors with felony records, was developed from the Congresswoman's oversight hearings. Both bills are part of her record in chairing a subcommittee for the first time, the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.

Fed up with administration delays in moving the long-awaited Old Post Office project forward, Norton took the unusual step of introducing H.R. 5001 to compel action that GSA could have taken administratively The Old Post Office development will save the federal government millions of dollars annually, will transform a historic site, much as the Tariff building at 7th and G Streets NW was recreated as the Monaco Hotel, and will become a revenue generator for the federal government and the District of Columbia alike. "The Old Post Office bill takes a big loser for all concerned and puts it in the win column finally," Norton said.

During public hearings in 2007, Norton learned that a proxy owner for a security contractor whose guards were assigned to protect federal buildings in the nation's capital had been convicted and had served five years for fraud and money laundering prior to receiving the federal contract in his wife's name. The contractor failed to pay his guards, even after receiving payment from the federal government, while other contractors were forced to borrow to pay guards because of months of late payments. Norton wrote the bill after taking testimony from representatives of over 600 guards responsible for protecting federal buildings and doing her own investigation of contracting by the Federal Protective Service (FPS) and its umbrella agency the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As a result, Norton required ICE to take specific steps to correct major problems that subcommittee hearings had uncovered in vendor payments for FPS contract guard services. She required ICE to centralize contracting operations and to assure her, in writing that it had processed and paid outstanding payments of $2,654,039 in undisputed claims. Among other reforms at ICE following Norton's hearings were the appointment of an ombudsman to be directly accessible to contractors nationwide whenever problems surface, additional training of ICE contracting officers guidance to contract vendors on new invoice requirements and procedures.