[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 115 (Thursday, July 28, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1431-E1432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE BILL TO PROVIDE FOR AN ANNUAL AUDIT OF THE UNION 
                   STATION REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 28, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce a bill to require greater 
accountability for a prized federal asset, Union Station in Washington, 
D.C. My bill would require an annual audit by the Department of 
Transportation Inspector General of the Union Station Redevelopment 
Corporation, USRC, and Union Station, which is owned by the Department 
of Transportation. For decades, no official audit has been performed 
and, increasingly, questions have been raised about the management and 
condition of the facility.
  Commissioned by Congress, Union Station first opened in 1907 as a 
train facility for the nation's capital, with a much heralded design by 
the famous architect Daniel Burnham. The station once was the largest 
building in the nation's capital. However, Union Station deteriorated 
from a bustling transportation hub and commercial center as rail use 
declined in the 1950s. Following a long series of failed ideas, wasted 
federal funds, cost overruns, major utility needs and mismanagement, 
Congress passed the Union Station Redevelopment Act (P.L. 97-125) in 
1981, authorizing the Secretary of Transportation to create USRC, a 
non-profit corporation, to spearhead the redevelopment of Union Station 
into a modern facility, to maintain and expand it into a great 
intermodal facility, and to protect the federal government's interest 
in the station. In 1988, Union Station, which had become a neglected, 
boarded up wasteland hardly fit for trains, reopened after a multi-
million dollar renovation with federal funds as a beautiful 
historically restored facility, shopping mall, and major multi-modal 
transit hub and tourist destination.
  When I chaired the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public 
Buildings and Emergency Management, we held what likely were the first 
hearings on Union Station since the USRC was formed and the renovations 
were completed. I was astonished to find that there was no master plan 
to account for the major renovations and modernizations planned for 
inside and outside of the station, including reconstruction of Columbus 
Circle, expanded Metro access for the busiest Metrorail station in the 
region, development of Burnham Place, a three-million square foot 
mixed-use development project over the rail tracks, and indispensable 
expansion of the concourse and waiting areas for Amtrak, the Maryland 
Rail Commuter Service, MARC, and the Virginia Railway Express, VRE. 
Today, the various components of Union Station have developed a master 
plan for the station, including a separate Amtrak master plan that 
currently is being developed because of the urgent need to improve 
capacity and service along the Northeast Corridor. Yet both the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Subcommittee on 
Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management have 
met significant resistance as we continue to press USRC to create an 
intercity bus deck in its existing space, in accordance with its 
mission to develop and maintain a true intermodal facility. It was only 
after two hearings and letters from the committee and from me that USRC 
developed a ``pilot'' intercity bus deck. Even so, after failed 
negotiations with intercity bus companies, it has required many 
meetings between USRC and me and my staff, a meeting with Chairman Mica 
and me, and the inclusion of the Department of Transportation, which, 
by statute, chairs the USRC Board of Directors, to finally jumpstarted 
meaningful discussions on a permanent intercity bus program.
  The audit is particularly essential now because of increasing 
evidence that USRC may not be able to meet its mandate to be self-
supporting. For example, Union Station contains the kind of popular 
retail shops and restaurants that pay significant taxes everywhere

[[Page E1432]]

else in the city, including in other federal buildings. However, USRC 
has asked the District of Columbia for a reduced Possessory Interest 
Tax assessment, a tax levied by the District on private businesses 
located in federal buildings. Yet USRC was given authority under the 
Union Station Redevelopment Act to negotiate lease agreements in this 
valuable property in order to ensure that the needs of Union Station 
would be covered, but USRC has negotiated a master retail lease that 
obligated USRC to pay half of any Possessory Interest Tax, thereby 
depriving USRC of significant funds that could be used for station 
maintenance and improvements. USRC says that its payment of the 
Possessory Interest Tax would hinder its mission of maintaining and 
preserving Union Station. The amount of the Possessory Interest Tax is 
small compared to Union Station's needs and casts further doubt about 
USRC's ability to meet its congressional mandate to make Union Station 
self-supporting.
  Although USRC was created in 1984 to ensure that Union Station would 
be self-sustaining, it is impossible for Congress or the public to 
gauge the health and progress of USRC without a proper audit. 
Particularly today, when there are no federal funds to rehabilitate 
Union Station, as Congress provided before, it is essential that we 
have a definitive and continuing view of the financial viability of 
Union Station, beginning with a full annual audit that is made 
available to Congress and to the public.
  Major planned development, ongoing negotiations on the intercity bus 
deck and questions about USRC's maintenance and needed improvements for 
Union Station make an official annual audit essential. With nearly 
90,000 visitors passing through Union Station every day, Congress is 
obligated to track the financial condition of this great asset in order 
to protect the significant federal investment and to avoid another 
cycle of the disrepair that once led to the closure of the facility. 
The only responsible course is to require a full annual and public 
audit of this historic federal property.

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