[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 24, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE FAIR LAND TRANSFER COMPENSATION ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 2005

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Fair Land 
Transfer Compensation Act, a bill for fee simple transfer of certain 
federal lands to the District of Columbia to provide partial in-kind 
compensation for the federally imposed structural balance documented in 
a 2003 GAO report to be ``between $470 million and up to more than $1.1 
billion.'' My bill would transfer 65.73 acres of land in Southeast 
Washington, D.C. known as Reservation 13 and the parcel known as Poplar 
Point, also in Southeast. The bill introduced today would assist in 
providing the compensation that would be authorized by H.R. 1586, the 
Fair Federal Compensation Act (FFCA) introduced by the bipartisan House 
regional delegation and me in April. The FFCA would authorize an annual 
federal contribution of $800 million (to increase annually with the 
consumer price index) to partially compensate the city and relieve a 
dangerous structural imbalance.
  The extensively documented GAO report confirming exclusive federal 
responsibility for the District's structural imbalance and the 
bipartisan sponsorship of the FFCA demonstrate the need for federal 
action. However, neither the administration nor the Congress has 
responded, despite the District's continuing apprehension and repeated 
introduction of the FFCA. Today's bill providing valuable land to 
partially compensate the District would mark the first significant 
federal response to the FFCA.
  The District of Columbia has had administrative control of 
Reservation 13, a GSA property, for 150 years and has used the parcel 
for the D.C. General Hospital, the District of Columbia jail, and other 
public facilities. Poplar Point is a strip of land owned by the 
National Park Service but has never been developed for use as a park.
  The transfer authorized in this bill has several advantages for the 
District and for the federal government: an immediate benefit in 
partial payment that the District has long sought from the federal 
government to compensate the city for the structural imbalance; 
satisfaction, through the transfer of valuable federal land, of some of 
the responsibility the GAO reports that the federal government bears 
for the District's structural imbalance; the highest and best use for 
underused land that the District desires for mixed uses that are 
unavailable if the District continues to have administrative control 
but not ownership; a continuing revenue stream in the nature of an 
annual contribution from investments the District will be able to 
attract following transfer of the land; and compliance with the Federal 
Property Act (FPA) requirement that the federal government receive 
value for the transfer. The bill requires an appraisal and estimates of 
the financial benefit to the District that are necessary to determine 
the extent to which the bill would reduce the federal government's 
responsibility for the structural deficit.

  The federal government has never used the parcels in my bill, and has 
no intention of doing so. At the same time, the District is unable to 
get value from this strategically located land in the city. Achieving 
maximum use of available sites located in the nation's capital, where 
the federal government owns and occupies the most valuable land, is 
essential to maintaining the financial stability of the District of 
Columbia.
  This bill would compensate the District for some of the costs 
responsible of the structural imbalance which include the federal 
removal from the tax rolls of more than 40 percent of District's land 
for federal and other purposes; services provided by the District to 
200,000 federal employees, notwithstanding a ban on taxation of 
commuters, most of whom are federal employees; and the District's 
responsibility for several state costs, although the city is not a 
state and lacks the broad tax base of a state.
  The costs to the District to cover this structural deficit are 
unsustainable. Among the most serious are the city's debt service, the 
highest in the country; its taxes, among the highest; and deferral of 
major capital improvements for vital facilities such as schools and for 
roads, a major factor inhibiting economic and population stability and 
growth.
  The existence, source and danger of the structural deficit imposed by 
federal mandates have been fully acknowledged and are no longer 
debatable. In addition to the definitive GAO report and the findings of 
the District's Chief Financial Officer, the details are reported in two 
other studies (McKinsey, March 2002, requested by the Federal City 
Council consisting of regional business representatives; and Brookings, 
October 2002, led by Alice Rivlin, former director of the CBO and of 
the OMB).
  According to the GAO, the only available options to eliminate the 
federally imposed deficit are ``to expand the District's tax base or to 
provide additional financial support.'' The bill I introduce today will 
``expand the District's tax base,'' creating a continuing revenue 
stream because ownership will allow the District to get the highest and 
best use of valuable land through its own development initiative. I ask 
that the House begin the process of compensating the District for the 
federal deficit carried by the city by enacting the Fair Land Transfer 
Compensation Act.

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