Norton to Speak at U.S. Coast Guard Ribbon-Cutting, Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today will speak at the ribbon-cutting of the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters on the St. Elizabeths campus (the first of several buildings planned for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies on the campus), after securing $1.4 billion in funding and guiding congressional oversight of construction of the headquarters. Norton led a preview tour for D.C. officials and Ward 8 and other D.C. residents last week of the Coast Guard headquarters, the first federal agency to locate east of the Anacostia River. The St. Elizabeths campus is expected to reinvigorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, Ward 8's major commercial street.

"Now that D.C. residents have toured the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters located in their backyard, today's ribbon-cutting will formally christen the building, which will receive the first approximately 4,000 employees in August," said Norton. "With the ribbon-cutting of the magnificent new headquarters, today is a historic day for the Coast Guard, which has never had its own home. In planning the DHS complex, and the Coast Guard headquarters in particular, we have taken the steps to help the DHS complex be a part of the revival of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, as federal agencies have done in other areas, such as NoMa and the Capitol Riverfront."

Norton secured funding for the 1.1-million-square-foot Coast Guard headquarters, as the recession began, not only to bring scattered DHS agencies together, but also to provide jobs and boost the D.C. and national economies. Although federal construction cannot give preference to local residents for jobs, Norton's oversight and vigorous outreach resulted in up to 22 percent of D.C. residents employed on the project although D.C. is only 10 percent of the region.

The building will house Coast Guard civilian and military employees, the first of the approximately 14,000 DHS employees who will be housed on the site. For fiscal year 2014, Norton successfully urged the President to include $367,031,000 in his budget for continued construction of the consolidated DHS headquarters on the West Campus, which has had support from the administration and Congress in recognition of the long-term cost savings from consolidating agencies and moving them from leased office space into federally owned space. Also included in the President's fiscal year 2014 budget is Norton's request for $9.8 million for D.C. to jumpstart redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths East Campus, where one of the DHS buildings is to be located, a valuable anchor to help jumpstart the D.C.-owned side of St. Elizabeths. The Senate Appropriations Committee last week fully funded the president's $9.8 million request.

Earlier this month, the House passed Norton's bill to name the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters on the St. Elizabeths West Campus the "Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building," for Signalman First Class Munro, the Coast Guard's only Medal of Honor recipient, who died heroically during a volunteer assignment in World War II. Norton is hopeful that the Senate will pass and the president will sign the bill before Congress' August recess.

Published: July 29, 2013