James Norton: “I want to strongly thank the chairman for the way in which the committee has insisted on endorsing a headquarters for…”

“I want to strongly thank the chairman for the way in which the committee has insisted on endorsing a headquarters for this department, because one of the continuing and most sustained criticisms of the department has been its management. But how can we expect the department to be managed when they are in 60 different places, 80 different leases? The inefficiencies, Mr. Chairman, associated with the dispersal of this largest department are incalculable. The great cuts and deficiencies we have seen in the Homeland budget pale beside what we see in the way in which it is positioned: multiple and redundant mailrooms and screening facilities and parking and child care facilities and fitness centers; and, above all, shuttles just so that one part of the department can get to meet face to face with another part. Worst of all, one part that I know will be vacated is the Massachusetts Avenue headquarters, and yet they're having to spend $18 million just to make that livable. They are forced to live by short-term leases, rollover leases, wasting money.”