Norton to Offer Amendment to Restore Funding for DHS Headquarters Construction at St Elizabeths
Norton to Offer Amendment to Restore Funding for DHS Headquarters Construction at St. Elizabeths
June 1, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will try today the first of her two approaches to restore funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters construction project at the St. Elizabeths campus in Ward 8. First, she will offer an amendment to the 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations bill to provide $500,673,000 for the project, which would fully fund the President's fiscal year 2012 DHS request for the project, as well as fund the outstanding balance from the President's fiscal year 2011 DHS request. Norton said there is adequate funding to continue building the Coast Guard Building and that there is no chance that the DHS headquarters will not be funded, but failure to keep funding coming on time is already adding to the cost of the project. Second, Norton has already begun working with her Senate allies in case her amendment is unsuccessful. She has briefed the Senate, where the chance of restoration may be improved. The Congresswoman is heartened by yesterday's Statement of Administration Policy on the bill, which said the bill "would delay the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters by at least two years, resulting in higher lease costs and will mean the loss of construction efficiencies and increased future construction costs."
As a result of the reduction in funding in fiscal year 2011, the total project cost is expected to increase by $69 million. The $69 million increase consists of a loss of integrated construction sequencing and efficiencies between the U.S. Coast Guard Building and the adjacent DHS Operations construction, in addition to the costs caused by lease holdovers and the short-term extension for the delay for Mission Support Consolidation. Further decreases in funding will only increase the total cost of this huge and already costly project. "Since the start of the 112th Congress, Republicans have focused almost exclusively on the need to cut government spending," said Norton. "If Republicans are serious about reducing government spending, they will support my amendment, which will save taxpayers from the increased costs, both now and in the long-term, of consolidating DHS into one facility and eliminating the leasing of space at several dozen facilities."
DHS offices are currently scattered throughout 40 different locations in the Washington metropolitan region, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for leased space. Consolidation of DHS will allow the federal government to realize significant long-term savings in real estate costs, in addition to providing additional revenue to the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Buildings Fund, which uses agency rental payments to GSA to fund the construction and maintenance. The consolidation will also reduce the time and money associated with shuttling DHS employees and officials across the city for meetings with other DHS employees.
Norton, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, who secured the initial funding for the St. Elizabeths project, has been continually monitoring and reviewing reports on hiring and small business contracts at the St. Elizabeths project. The Congresswoman holds frequent meetings with GSA, the contracting agency for the DHS construction, requires progress reports and holds hearings to monitor progress. The DHS project, the largest economic development project in the nation today and the first federal construction ever east of the Anacostia River, is expected to generate 38,000 construction-related jobs and many small business contracts through 2016, in addition to the 14,000 additional permanent federal jobs.