[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 81 (Monday, June 14, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3897-H3900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PROVIDING FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF HEADQUARTERS FOR DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 
                                SECURITY

  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4322) to provide for the establishment of the headquarters 
for the Department of Homeland Security in the District of Columbia, to 
require the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over the Nebraska 
Avenue Naval Complex in the District of Columbia to serve as the 
location for the headquarters, to facilitate the acquisition by the 
Department of the Navy of suitable replacement facilities, and for 
other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4322

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. TRANSFER OF NEBRASKA AVENUE NAVAL COMPLEX, 
                   DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

       (a) Transfer Required.--Except as provided in subsection 
     (b), the Secretary of the Navy shall transfer the parcel of 
     Department of the Navy real property in the District of 
     Columbia known as the Nebraska Avenue Complex to the 
     jurisdiction, custody, and control of the Administrator of 
     General Services for the purpose of permitting the 
     Administrator to use the Complex to accommodate the 
     Department of Homeland Security. The Complex shall be 
     transferred in its existing condition.
       (b) Authority to Retain Military Family Housing.--At the 
     option of the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary may retain 
     jurisdiction, custody, and control over that portion of the 
     Complex that, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, is 
     being used to provide Navy family housing.
       (c) Time for Transfer and Relocation of Navy Activities.--
     Not later than nine months after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the Secretary of the Navy shall--
       (1) complete the transfer of the Complex to the 
     Administrator of General Services under subsection (a); and
       (2) relocate Department of the Navy activities at the 
     Complex to other locations.
       (d) Payment of Initial Relocation Costs.--
       (1) Payment responsibility.--Subject to the availability of 
     appropriations for this purpose, the Secretary of the 
     Department of Homeland Security shall be responsible for the 
     payment of--
       (A) all reasonable costs, including costs to move 
     furnishings and equipment, related to the initial relocation 
     of Department of the Navy activities from the Nebraska Avenue 
     Complex; and
       (B) all reasonable costs incident to the initial occupancy 
     by such activities of interim leased space, including rental 
     costs for the first year.
       (2) Authorization of appropriations.--For purposes of 
     carrying out paragraph (1),

[[Page H3898]]

     there is authorized to be appropriated to the Department of 
     Homeland Security such sums as may be necessary for fiscal 
     years 2005 through 2007.
       (e) Payment of Long-Term Relocation Costs.--
       (1) Sense of congress regarding payment.--It is the sense 
     of the Congress that the Secretary of the Navy should 
     receive, from Federal agencies other than the Department of 
     Defense, funds authorized and appropriated for the purpose of 
     covering all reasonable costs, not paid under subsection (d), 
     that are incurred or will be incurred by the Secretary to 
     permanently relocate Department of the Navy activities from 
     the Complex under subsection (c)(2).
       (2) Submission of cost estimates.--As soon as practicable 
     after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
     the Navy shall submit to the Director of the Office of 
     Management and Budget and the Congress an initial estimate of 
     the amounts that will be necessary to cover the costs to 
     permanently relocate Department of the Navy activities from 
     the portion of the Complex to be transferred under subsection 
     (a). The Secretary shall include in the estimate anticipated 
     land acquisition and construction costs. The Secretary shall 
     revise the estimate as necessary whenever information 
     regarding the actual costs for the relocation is obtained.
       (f) Treatment of Funds.--(1) Funds received by the 
     Secretary of the Navy, from sources outside the Department of 
     Defense, to relocate Department of the Navy activities from 
     the Complex shall be used to pay the costs incurred by the 
     Secretary to permanently relocate Department of the Navy 
     activities from the Complex. A military construction project 
     carried out using such funds is deemed to be an authorized 
     military construction project for purposes of section 2802 of 
     title 10, United States Code. Section 2822 of such title 
     shall continue to apply to any military family housing unit 
     proposed to be constructed or acquired using such funds.
       (2) When a decision is made to carry out a military 
     construction project using such funds, the Secretary of the 
     Navy shall notify Congress in writing of that decision, 
     including the justification for the project and the current 
     estimate of the cost of the project. The project may then be 
     carried out only after the end of the 21-day period beginning 
     on the date the notification is received by Congress or, if 
     earlier, the end of the 14-day period beginning on the date 
     on which a copy of the notification is provided in an 
     electronic medium pursuant to section 480 of title 10, United 
     States Code.
       (g) Effect of Failure to Receive Sufficient Funds for 
     Relocation Costs.--
       (1) Congressional notification.--At the end of the five-
     year period beginning on the date on which the transfer of 
     the Complex is to be completed under subsection (c)(1), the 
     Secretary of the Navy shall submit to Congress a report--
       (A) specifying the total amount needed to cover both the 
     initial and permanent costs of relocating Department of the 
     Navy activities from the portion of the Complex transferred 
     under subsection (a);
       (B) specifying the total amount of the initial relocation 
     costs paid by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland 
     Security under subsection (d); and
       (C) specifying the total amount of appropriated funds 
     received by the Secretary of the Navy, from sources outside 
     the Department of Defense, to cover the permanent relocation 
     costs.
       (2) Role of omb.--The Secretary of the Navy shall obtain 
     the assistance and concurrence of the Director of the Office 
     of Management and Budget in determining the total amount 
     needed to cover both the initial and permanent costs of 
     relocating Department of the Navy activities from the portion 
     of the Complex transferred under subsection (a), as required 
     by paragraph (1)(A).
       (3) Certification regarding relocation costs.--Not later 
     than 30 days after the date on which the report under 
     paragraph (1) is required to be submitted to Congress, the 
     President shall certify to Congress whether the amounts 
     specified in the report pursuant to subparagraphs (B) and (C) 
     of such paragraph are sufficient to cover both the initial 
     and permanent costs of relocating Department of the Navy 
     activities from the portion of the Complex transferred under 
     subsection (a). The President shall make this certification 
     only after consultation with the Chairmen and ranking 
     minority members of the Committee on Armed Services and the 
     Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives 
     and the Chairmen and ranking minority members of the 
     Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on 
     Appropriations of the Senate.
       (4) Restoration of complex to navy.--If the President 
     certifies under paragraph (3) that amounts referred to in 
     subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (1) are insufficient 
     to cover Navy relocation costs, the Administrator of General 
     Services, at the request of the Secretary of the Navy, shall 
     restore the Complex to the jurisdiction, custody, and control 
     of the Secretary of the Navy.
       (5) Navy sale of complex.--If the Complex is restored to 
     the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary shall convey the 
     Complex by competitive sale. Amounts received by the United 
     States as consideration from any sale under this paragraph 
     shall be deposited in the special account in the Treasury 
     established pursuant to paragraph (5) of section 572(b) of 
     title 40, United States Code, and shall be available for use 
     as provided in subparagraph (B)(i) of such paragraph.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Hunter) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter).


                             General Leave

  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on H.R. 4322, the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this March the Department of Homeland Security 
celebrated its first anniversary in its short existence. DHS has been a 
leader in the effort to secure America, prevent and deter terrorist 
attacks, and protect against and respond to threats against the Nation.
  While DHS has successfully integrated 22 government agencies into the 
homeland security mission, it still does not have a centralized 
headquarters location. The longer that DHS operates without such a 
centralized location, the longer it will be handicapped by the 
challenges of running an organization whose parts are scattered 
throughout the region.
  H.R. 4322 addresses this shortcoming by authorizing the Department of 
the Navy to transfer jurisdiction, custody, and control over more than 
30 acres in northwest Washington, known as the Nebraska Avenue Complex, 
to the General Services Administration. This property will be used as 
the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
  This bill was crafted at the request of the administration and is 
cosponsored by the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox), the chairman of 
the Select Committee on Homeland Security. The House Committee on Armed 
Services reported the base text of this bill without objection on a 
voice vote.
  The amended version before the House today contains a number of 
technical changes to the bill reported by the committee, most notably 
the addition of ``custody and control'' to the transfer language, but 
the substance of the bill remains the same. In sum, it provides a home 
for the headquarters of DHS for the foreseeable future.
  In just 1 year, DHS has proven its value to homeland security. I urge 
my colleagues to help make DHS an even more effective organization by 
supporting H.R. 4322 today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as 
I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the Department of Homeland Security has understandably 
operated without a consolidated headquarters since its inception. The 
bill before us will convey property from the Navy to the GSA to help 
consolidate headquarters for the Department.
  Given the critical nature of the Department's mission, we must allow 
Secretary Ridge to operate the Department as efficiently as possible. 
This bill is a significant step in the growth of this new agency; and 
that is why the Committee on Armed Services, in a bipartisan way, 
supports relocating the Navy from its Nebraska Avenue Complex in 
northwest Washington, D.C., to accommodate the Department of Homeland 
Security.
  We should be under no illusion, however, that the headquarters 
provided under this bill is a permanent or ideal solution. In fact, 
some have even questioned whether this is truly a headquarters at all. 
We are consolidating some of the leadership elements of the departments 
on one site, but workers will still be spread among more than a dozen 
buildings. It is not yet clear that the site can fully accommodate the 
Department's headquarters, in part because the Department is still 
evolving and is itself a patchwork of agencies. Several of the 
Department's key agencies will maintain separate headquarters 
elsewhere. These concerns have led some in Congress to question whether 
we should even designate the Nebraska Avenue Complex as the 
headquarters of the Department at all.

[[Page H3899]]

  I am also aware that the distinguished gentlewoman from the District 
of Columbia (Ms. Norton) has concerns with portions of the bill, and 
she will seek time to speak on this, in particular, the provision that 
calls for the selling of property if the Navy is not fully reimbursed 
for the cost of its move. This provision was inserted to help ensure 
the Navy does not pay a financial penalty to accommodate the Department 
of Homeland Security, but the potential mandatory sale of 38 acres in 
the District raises legitimate concerns. We will continue to work with 
everyone, including the gentlewoman from the District, to address these 
concerns when we conference with the Senate on this matter.
  The bill before us is imperfect. It still needs some work, but a lot 
of changes have been made to it. In a sense it is a reflection of the 
nature and the status of the Department of Homeland Security itself. 
Despite some of these flaws, though, the bill is a step in the right 
direction, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I do not believe we have anymore speakers. I 
would thank my colleague, an esteemed member of the committee, for his 
comments; and I believe he has one more speaker on his side. If he 
could go ahead and recognize that speaker, then we will close out very 
quickly.
  Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6\1/2\ minutes to the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

                              {time}  1545

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work of the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Hunter), the chairman of the committee, and the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen) for bringing this bill to the 
floor. I support this bill.
  I am very pleased that this question has been settled by the 
commitment of the Department of Homeland Security to make its home in 
the District of Columbia. It is unthinkable that the Department of 
Homeland Security of our country should be elsewhere. I commend 
Secretary Ridge for his personal involvement in this decision. I am a 
member of both of the committees involved with this issue, the Select 
Committee on Homeland Security, I am not a member of the Committee on 
Armed Services, of course, and the Subcommittee on Public Buildings, 
Economic Development and Emergency Development of the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure.
  Since the Department was created 2 years ago, I have worked with both 
the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services 
Administration to identify suitable space in the District of Columbia 
to house the new Department. I am delighted that for now, and until the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reviews and approves 
housing plans, which the Department is in the process of drawing, the 
Department will be housed at the Naval complex on Nebraska Avenue.
  The Department has spent considerable time in preparing a housing 
plan, but it is important to note that this is a department in 
formation, so the Department itself is having its difficulties thinking 
about how the Department will look 5 years out, 10 years out; and for 
that reason we have not held hearings to review the DHS's plan for what 
security elements will be included in headquarters operations. Members 
can imagine that they would have to be extraordinary.
  My colleagues on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
in a bipartisan fashion shared that they all have concerns about the 
language contained in the title. The language is that this facilitates 
the establishment of a headquarters complex at the Nebraska Avenue 
complex. This may seem like a technical matter. I hope it is a 
technical matter.
  We would hope if the director, after drawing his housing plan, were 
to decide that he wished to be elsewhere, the way in which the GSA 
operates is it goes and tries to find him space elsewhere. We do not 
even know how big this Department will be and if it will outgrow the 
Nebraska headquarters, so the notion that this is the headquarters 
could be read technically to mean they do not have the authority to 
move elsewhere.
  By way of background, officials from the White House Office of 
Management and Budget, the Department of Homeland Security, the General 
Services Administration, and the Navy agreed to a three-step approach 
whereby: (1) the Nebraska Avenue complex would be transferred to GSA; 
(2) GSA would lease the space to homeland security; and (3) the Navy 
would be made whole for the expenses associated with its move from the 
site.
  In fact, in February of this year, these officials met with the 
transportation committee staff on a bipartisan basis to review the 
details of this approach. That is the administration and the staff on 
both sides of the aisle meeting in the same room. The original bill 
title merely spoke about the use of the property by homeland security, 
not establishing permanent headquarters. Again, this is a very 
technical matter, but we have seen how technical matters can throw 
people off once they want to do something in the Congress. I am not 
making a major objection, but I want to go on the record to say that if 
Secretary Ridge says this is a whole lot smaller space than we need, I 
do not want us to say you are locked in by the language of the title. 
That is all I am bringing to Members' attention.
  The Nebraska Avenue complex is 38 acres in northwest Washington. It 
contains 33 mostly unconnected buildings, over 1,000 parking spaces, 
and 556,000 square feet of office space. Many of the buildings are old, 
one dating back to 1916, many constructed in the 1920s. The site is not 
nearly as secure as it has to be for the agency with the highest 
security mission.
  Currently, there are 1,300 personnel at the site, almost evenly split 
between Navy personnel and DHS personnel. Eventually DHS intends to 
house 1,986 personnel at the site; at least that is what they think 
now. Those personnel are now housed in mostly leased space in over 5 
million square feet of space in the District and the region.
  Given the enormous impact DHS will have on the government's 
administrative costs, and the impact it will have on the District and 
the region, more thought and attention should be given to establishing 
a headquarters in the District of Columbia. I have to assume that the 
decision of the Secretary would be controlling, it always is, when we 
look for space for an agency.
  The bill also contains a mandatory sale provision of the property in 
the event the Navy is not fully reimbursed for its moving cost. A sale 
of such magnitude in the District of Columbia should be consistent with 
provisions of the Property Act, and not an act conducted solely by the 
Navy.
  Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) 
and also the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen) for their comments. 
I think we do have 22 agencies coming together in this Homeland 
Security Department. Obviously it is a major, major challenge to put 
this team together. We are taking the first step, and that is getting 
an appropriate area in Washington, D.C. to headquarter this team.
  I want to commend Mr. Ridge and Asa Hutchinson and the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Larsen), who is helping us on this legislation, and the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for everything 
she has done.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the House Armed 
Services Committee for making changes, at the request of the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to H.R. 4322, a bill to 
transfer the Nebraska Avenue Naval Complex (``Complex'') in Washington, 
DC, to General Service Administration (``GSA'') for the purpose of 
permitting GSA to use the Complex to house the Department of Homeland 
Security (``DHS''). One important change clarifies that the Department 
of Navy will transfer the property to the ``jurisdiction, custody, and 
control'' of GSA. These terms clarify that GSA will have the same 
authority over the Complex as it does over other government facilities.
  However, I regretfully note that the title of the amended bill 
includes an error that suggests that the bill is establishing the DHS 
headquarters. Although the bill title does not have legislative effect, 
I wish to make clear that this bill does not establish a headquarters

[[Page H3900]]

for DHS. It would be premature to do so because there has been no 
analysis of the pros and cons of the Complex, compared to other 
possible sites. DHS will continue to be housed in the Complex facility 
while DHS and GSA prepare a long-term housing plan for the Department 
of Homeland Security to be submitted for approval to the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on 
Environment and Public Works. Through that process, the Committee will 
determine an appropriate permanent headquarters location for DHS in the 
District of Columbia.
  While the Nebraska Avenue Naval Complex adequately serves DHS as an 
interim facility, there are many serious deficiencies associated with 
its aging buildings and the fact that the facility's 33 buildings are 
scattered across a 38-acre site. Moreover, building and 
telecommunication security is not optimal. DHS, GSA, and the 
Transportation Committee will consider these and other issues as we 
examine a long-term housing plan and headquarters location for DHS.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4322, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A Bill to provide 
for the transfer of the Nebraska Avenue Naval Complex in the District 
of Columbia to facilitate the establishment of the headquarters for the 
Department of Homeland Security, to provide for the acquisition by 
Department of the Navy of suitable replacement facilities, and for 
other purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________