Working with Senate Norton Gets New Funds for DHS Ward 8 Construction

September 6, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Following the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security markup of the Fiscal Year 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today expressed enormous relief that the appropriations bill includes $56 million for IT infrastructure at the new U.S. Coast Guard Building under construction at the St. Elizabeths campus in Ward 8, which ensures that the Coast Guard building will open on-time in 2013.

"I am grateful to my good friend Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who was instrumental in helping to get initial funds for this project,for making sure that this project did not incur additional costs by going without sufficient funds and creating delays in the building's construction," said Norton. "I have secured more than $1 billion for this project. There is no chance that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters will not be funded, but failure to keep funding coming on time is already adding to the cost of the project." Norton said she is hoping for further DHS construction funding in the General Services Administration appropriations bill.

Although the House-passed DHS appropriations bill eliminated funding for a portion of the DHS St. Elizabeths construction, Norton has been working with the Senate to restore the funds. She sent Senator Inouye a detailed memo on the importance of avoiding a gap in funding the project.

In June, Norton successfully fought off an amendment by Louie Gohmert (R-TX) to DHS appropriations bill that would have prohibited federal building construction, purchasing and leasing for DHS anywhere in the District of Columbia. The Obama Administration issued a Statement of Policy on the House-passed DHS appropriations 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."

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