On the recordFebruary 7, 2011
if the Senator will yield, as someone who has been in the real estate business for almost 30 years, there is enormous opportunity. I know that when I was mayor, we put more of the lands--we are not talking parks; we are talking about just surplus old buildings and sites that are no longer in use--we put them back into operation because not only will it save the Federal Government money in the sense of getting that surplus property off the books, but what we end up doing is turning that into economic development companies for those communities. The private sector will come in and revitalize it and use it. There are many ideas out there. I thank the Senator for the opportunity to sponsor this with him. As the Senator said, $500 million is the minimum. I think it is close to $1 billion just on this one idea. I yield the floor.
