[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     FDA'S EXPENSIVE NEW FACILITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, one of the most wasteful, inefficient 
agencies in the entire Federal Government is the Food and Drug 
Administration.
  In their bureaucratic and arrogant way, they have held medicines and 
medical devices off the U.S. market, sometimes for years, to the 
detriment of the health of American citizens.
  By their rules, regulations, and redtape, they have driven up the 
price of drugs and have helped the big drug giants by making it 
extremely difficult or almost impossible for small businesses to 
compete in the field.
  Now, however, they want to do something which should outrage every 
taxpayer in the Nation.
  At a time when we are supposed to be downsizing the Federal 
Government, the FDA wants to build a Taj Mahal complex of buildings in 
Maryland for a new headquarters.
  Part of this project is to be in Montgomery County and part in Prince 
Georges County.
  However, the important point is not the location. It is the cost.
  The original cost estimate for these buildings was almost $1 billion 
dollars.
  However, because the FDA has become concerned about the appearance of 
this exorbitant and excessive spending at a time when most people want 
frugality in Government, they have lowered their estimated cost, all 
the way down to $875 million.
  Even if this project comes in on budget, which I seriously doubt, it 
would still be at a cost of a whopping $257 a square foot.
  State governments are building beautiful buildings for half this 
cost.
  And is the FDA doing everything possible to hold down costs? Well, 
since the money is not coming out of their own pockets, they chose the 
most expensive site they looked at and some of the most expensive land 
in this Nation.
  The original cost estimate for the Prince Georges facility was $290 a 
square foot.
  The Montgomery County complex is to be several buildings 
interconnected, in a college campus-like setting, on a 530-acre tract 
of land--530 acres when they could build a beautiful headquarters on an 
acre or less.
  The fact is, Mr. Speaker, the FDA should be greatly reformed. It 
should be greatly downsized. It should stay where it is now.
  Perhaps the most phenomenal thing of all is the size of this 
project--3.4 million square feet--to house only 6,500 employees. This 
comes out to approximately 750 square feet per employee.
  Most Members of Congress have approximately 1,000 square feet to 
house 9 or 10 employees, or about one-seventh of what the FDA wants.
  Moreover, FDA's current offices and laboratories occupy 2.1 million 
square feet of office space.
  The new FDA complex will be 3.4 million square feet in size. This is 
one million, three hundred thousand square feet more than what they 
have now--a 60 percent increase--at a time when the Federal Government 
is supposed to be downsizing.
  With a national debt of more than $4.7 trillion, we should not be 
spending almost $1 billion to build plush new quarters for FDA 
bureaucrats.
  The bureaucrats want to live like kings while taxpayers foot the 
bill.
  I am pleased that today, the Citizens for a Sound Economy came out 
strongly against this project.
  I know we have a Government that is of, by, and for the bureaucrats 
instead of one that is of, by, and for the people, but, Mr. Speaker, 
this is one I hope we can win for the taxpayers.


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