Eleanor Holmes Norton

This is a rare, if not unprecedented, hearing. And I just want to say for the record, this is a hearing about public money.

The last thing that Freddie and Fannie need are law firms to drive them into further trouble than the American people already hold them accountable for.

That is good news. We understand that you have said that firms would now have to meet 'certain minimum uniform criteria.' What are those criteria?

It is going to be very hard to get any money from the appropriators or anybody else in the Congress of the United States to do anything.

But that doesn't mean that the authorizers ought to be ignored.

I don't want the result of this committee hearing to be that we authorized you, in spite of what looks to be a change in the scope, to go forward without coming back to this committee.

What I do object to is your having no discussions with Mr. Goldstein.

I just want to say that we have been following the prospectuses as you outline, and I associate myself with your comments.

I want to say on the record that this project is not an exception to the mandate of this committee regarding changes in the scope of a project.

You are here today because this committee called you here today.

Believe me, you don't have any choice.

But they have not agreed to share space when it comes to active judges.

You not only are doing that, and we never--this committee has never stood for inflexibility.

That is why I asked you in my prior round of questions whether there was ever any intent to abandon Prettyman. Nobody builds an annex with the thought in mind that all the judges will no longer be in the historic courthouse.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, Mr. Peck, when you look at a courthouse like the Prettyman Courthouse, you walk into that courthouse, this is the main courthouse in the District of Columbia, it is a perfectly suitable building, but it…

You betcha, Judge Morrow. You betcha it is going to require it.

The Judicial Conference of the United States controls how taxpayer money is going to be spent for courthouses.

I submit it as one I am familiar with, which illustrates my impatience with--your impatience with the GAO report.

I have been on this committee for 20 years. I have never seen you come back to this committee and say to the committee, we have new specifications that we need.

It is routine for Federal agencies to attack the investigator. Everybody does it.

What a beautiful courthouse, the Prettyman Courthouse is.

So meeting with people all the time is not responsive to my question.

I don't think you were doing us any favor, Mr. Peck.

Request to include letter from Hon. Jose F. Serrano, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York

The elephant is that we are sitting here as if this is going to happen.