Norton Tours St. Elizabeth Today with an Appropriations Chair Responsibile For Funding (5/5/08)

Washington, D.C. î º Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), will join Congressman David Price (D-NC), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on a tour of the 182 acre west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital complex on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 3:15 P.M. Price's subcommittee is processing $120 million of the $346.6 million authorized for construction of a new Homeland Security headquarters. The remainder will come through the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, chaired by Representative José Serrano (D-NY), whose jurisdiction includes D.C. appropriations. Norton said that she appreciated that the Chair was "interested to actually see where the subcommittee's funds would be spent, especially considering the condition of the site and the many historic buildings on the St. Elizabeths west campus to which federal funds will be allocated for preservation."

Norton, who is the chair of the subcommittee that will supervise the construction, said that Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration have developed a master plan and have completed initial environmental and historical revisions. The selection of the project design is expected this summer.

"I'm excited to get construction started," Norton said, "particularly considering that the coming of the important DHS headquarters, the first federal building east of the Anacostia, is expected to revive Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue, the main commercial street of Ward 8, which bears a heavy responsibility for deterioration in the ward itself."