WASHINGTON, DC—The General Services Administration has formulated a new proposal for the planned consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security at St. Elizabeths that would save the federal government approximately $800 million.
The new proposal would trim the consolidation program's cost from $4.5 billion to $3.7 billion by making more efficient use of the 60-some historic buildings on the Congress Heights campus. Notice of the new plan was included in the President Barack Obama's recently released 2016 budget proposal, according to the Washington Business Journal.
The GSA is not cutting any specific building projects, but proposes to reduce the space utilization rate per worker from 230 square feet to 144 square feet, according to GSA spokeswoman Kamara Jones. Those changes will reportedly allow the DHS to house more workers than the originally planned 12,800 at the St. Elizabeths campus.
The new plan would also allow DHS to relocate the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the west campus instead of the planned location on the east campus that is mostly owned by the district. DC leaders had pinned hopes on a new 717,500-square-foot FEMA headquarters on the east campus serving as an anchor for other businesses there. See story in the Washington Business Journal.
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