Funding for DHS HQ at St. Elizabeths Cut
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DON'T EXPECT THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY to move from the Navy Security Center near American University across town to the west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital near Anacostia anytime soon. In the massive $515.7 billion domestic spending bill that passed the House on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday, funding was removed for Homeland Security's new headquarters, as The Post's Mary Beth Sheridan reports.
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said in a statement that the move came in response to White House budget preferences:
Since the president proposed cutting or eliminating essential homeland security programs for first-responders, transit and rail security, and port security, we made a decision to rearrange the Homeland Security budget so that these important priorities were not shortchanged ... That meant that some of the president's original budget priorities had to get cut, including the St. Elizabeths project.Proponents of the project, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., say they hope to find funds elsewhere to preserve the plan. But as of right now, the project is going nowhere fast.
Preservation activists have criticized the effort, which they say would limit access to the vista overlooking downtown from across the Anacostia River, pictured above. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the hospital, which dates to the 1850s, as an endangered site.
» "Funds Cut for Homeland Security Headquarters" [WaPo]
» "11 Most Endangered Places" [National Trust for Historic Preservation]
File photos by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post
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good. awesome. the DHS plan is bad, period.
By IMGoph , Posted December 19, 2007 9:12 PMSt. Elizabeths has always been closed to the public. It was a mental hospital - access was controlled to protect both the patients and the public. In a Pre-September 11th mentality it may have been fairly easy to get into the sight but not since. The picture is clearly a guided tour by GSA, who currently controls the site.
Moreover, Homeland Security is part of our National Security organizations. We don’t let people walk around the Pentagon at will, we don’t let people walk around the CIA headquarters at will, we don’t let people walk around the White House at will. Therefore why would we allow the public to have access to the point and walk around the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters? It is clearly a desire or a naivety that this should be the case.
Its also funny that Congress, particularly the Democrats, pushed President to create the Department of Homeland Security – then when the President proposes to consolidate its leadership in one place (one of the major needs of the developing organization) then Congress guts the funding because they want to spend it on other items. In the mean time several Democrats are critical the Administration for not doing enough to mature the Department.
You can’t have it both ways, unless you’re in Congress.
By Cosmo_deMedici , Posted December 20, 2007 7:26 AM