[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 19, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




H.R. 1522 SPONSOR JOEL HEFLEY AMENDS THE NATIONAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION 
                                  ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 19, 1998

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, Congress has a role to play in the 
design, preservation, and livability of our nation's capital. The land 
that houses the nation's congressional offices, the Botanical Garden 
and several of the administrative offices is under the stewardship of 
the Architect of the Capitol. In the past, Congress has exempted the 
Architect of the Capitol from meeting the same building, design, and 
community notification guidelines it requires other builders in the 
city and nation to meet. These exemptions have not worked to the 
public's benefit.
  In the early 1960's Congress spent over $100 million to build the 
Rayburn House Office Building. It was designed by the Architect of the 
Capitol of the time, J. George Stewart. The building sits on 50 acres 
and is widely considered a waste of precious space. Only 15 percent of 
the building is used for hearing rooms and offices. Forty-two percent 
is used for parking. The appearance and design of the building since 
its inception has been considered architecturally void and barely 
functional with its hallways that end without warning.
  Again, in 1997 the Architect of the Capitol, without consulting the 
public, demolished an historic row house built in 1890 to construct a 
$2 million day care center. The location was bitterly opposed by 
residents and local groups. The Architect demolished the historic house 
and constructed a new structure with what appeared to be an act of very 
little coordination with the people who lived in the neighborhood. 
Sadly enough, today the structure is nonfunctional due to a deadly 
toxin which developed on site.
  Fortunately, Representative Joel Hefley's bill H.R. 1522 takes steps 
to bring the Architect of the Capitol under the same guidelines as 
other builders who are required to abide by the National Preservation 
Act. I am pleased and hopeful the mistakes of the past will not have 
the opportunity to be repeated due to the building guidelines in this 
bill and other efforts currently in process by my office. The Architect 
of the Capitol needs to update their services by including the public 
in their decision making process and by following building guidelines 
established by Congress.
  Currently, I am working to expand the efforts put forth in H.R. 1522 
with legislation that would address several areas of the operation of 
the Architect of the Capitol. The major elements of the bill provide 
for community notification, a community comment period, annual auditing 
of their expenditures, historical impact statements and environmental 
impact statements for new buildings and a separate department of 
recycling with public reports as to the success of the recycling 
program.
  In addition, I would like to add that H.R. 1522 successfully 
addresses the codification of Executive Order 12072 and 13006. By 
drawing investment away from our cities, urban sprawl has been sucking 
the life out of our downtowns. Sprawling development leads directly to 
traffic congestion, decreased air quality, loss of farm and forest 
land, decreased water quality and the need for costly new 
infrastructure. As land development continues to press further and 
further out, many of our older suburbs have begun to deteriorate as 
well.
  Despite the fact that Executive Order 12072 and 13006 require federal 
agencies to try to locate in our cities, strong evidence suggests that 
federal agencies continue to abandon our cities in favor of suburban 
locations inaccessible to urban workers and urban transportation 
services. I am extremely pleased to see the codification of these 
Executive Orders, so that our federal agencies will no longer 
contribute to the blight of urban sprawl.

                          ____________________