Norton Roundtable Hearing on Thursday Takes Testimony from D.C. Residents on DHS Headquarters Site
Norton Roundtable Hearing on Thursday Takes Testimony from D.C. Residents
and Small Business at work at DHS Headquarters Site
June 27, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, will hold a DHS Construction, D.C. Jobs and Small Business Accountability Roundtable Hearing on D.C. employment and small business participation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters construction site at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Ward 8 on Thursday, June 30, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2167. At the Roundtable Hearing, Norton will take testimony from General Services Administration (GSA) officials, the general contractor, D.C. small businesses and employees working at the site, including: GSA Project Executive Shapour Ebadi and GSA Deputy Public Buildings Service Commissioner David Foley; General Contractor Clark Construction Vice President Lincoln Lawrence; D.C. small businesses with work on the site, including the President of Milani Construction, Saeed Milani; the President and CEO of AV Smoot, Adrienne Smoot; the President of P&D Drywall Contractors, Shawn Juman; and Merrill Smith, President of Metropolitan Fire Sprinkler, which was Norton's 2011 small business of the year; and several D.C. residents working on the site, including those hired from the Opportunities Center that Norton had Clark Construction build on site in order to provide ready access to jobs for D.C. residents, and those from Project Empowerment.
Federal law prohibits hiring quotas for workers from a particular state or region, but allows outreach to local residents. Norton has required aggressive outreach on the project to D.C. residents and businesses, and she and her office closely monitor progress on the project, with monthly reporting requirements, meetings, unannounced site visits, and hearings, including a hearing in Ward 8 and two community meetings. She also got $3 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship training. "Thursday's Roundtable Hearing provides an important way not only to keep me informed of progress and problems at the massive construction site, but also to give the city and the community the most current information on D.C. jobs and small business participation three," Norton said. "I know from my experience as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that there is no substitute for close monitoring, transparency and community contact on a project.
Work is expected to continue on the project for several years, providing 38,000 construction-related jobs and 14,000 permanent DHS jobs when the first federal agencies move east of the Anacostia River to the Coast Guard \headquarters building now under construction and to other buildings that will be constructed or rehabilitated.
Because this is a Congressional Roundtable Hearing where only Members of Congress may ask questions, Norton asks residents to contact the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management at (202) 225-9961 to submit questions for Norton to ask during the hearing.