Norton Says She Will Protect D.C. from State Department Efforts to Take D.C.’s Land at Walter Reed

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she will continue to protect the 67 acres on the eastern side at the former Walter Reed Army Hospital from State Department requests for up to 13 acres of this property. The Department of Defense is currently in negotiations with the District of Columbia over the transfer of these 67 acres. The State Department made the request for up to 13 acres from the District's portion after Norton helped put language in the House passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2015 to authorize the transfer of the old Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Building (Building 54) and its attachments (Buildings 52, 53 and 3) from the inventory at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the District of Columbia Children's National Medical Center (Children's).

The buildings cannot be repurposed except as the state-of-the-art lab space for which Children's would use it, with little change. The State Department has plans to use the land other than as a laboratory, requiring demolition which could cost upwards of $20 million. However, the State Department reportedly is seeking the land for free in violation of federal laws and rules.

"The District of Columbia has held up its end of the bargain by working with the Department of Defense and the Department of State throughout the negotiation process, and I will hold up mine by ensuring that the Department of State is not allowed to succeed in a land grab on land set to go to the District," Norton said. "Children's is a national children's hospital that serves the entire national capital region and the nation. The State Department does not have the resources being demanded of the District, but is trying to get a usable property to destroy it and then set it aside for decades. If the rules that the District and other federal agencies are held to mean anything, the State Department cannot and will not succeed."

Norton was instrumental in ensuring that just over 66 acres of the 110 acre site would be occupied by the District of Columbia. She also supports language in the NDAA to authorize the transfer of the old Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Building and its attachments to Children's. Children's has agreed to continue working with the Local Redevelopment Authority on an economic impact analysis and traffic impact study and has pledged to work with the surrounding community.