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Planned Homeland Security Headquarters, Long Delayed and Over Budget, Now in Doubt
The Washington Post ^ | Wednesday, May 21, 2014 | Jerry Markon

Posted on 05/21/2014 7:01:55 PM PDT by kristinn

The construction of a massive new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, billed as critical for national security and the revitalization of Southeast Washington, is running more than $1.5 billion over budget, is 11 years behind schedule and may never be completed, according to planning documents and federal officials.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the George W. Bush administration called for a new, centralized headquarters to strengthen the department’s ability to coordinate the fight against terrorism and respond to natural disasters. More than 50 historic buildings would be renovated and new ones erected on the grounds of St. Elizabeths, a onetime insane asylum with a panoramic view of the District.

The entire complex was to be finished as early as this year, at a cost of less than $3 billion, according to the initial plan.

Instead, with the exception of a Coast Guard building that opened last year, the grounds remain entirely undeveloped, with the occasional deer grazing amid the vacant Gothic Revival-style structures. The budget has ballooned to $4.5 billion, with completion pushed back to 2026. Even now, as Obama administration officials make the best of their limited funding, they have started design work for a second building that congressional aides and others familiar with the project say may never open.

SNIP

Funding ran far short from the start. In 2007, the Bush administration asked for $362 million, but the Democratic-controlled House slashed it to $6 million. “They weren’t going to give Bush that amount of money — because it was Bush,” said a Democrat who was familiar with the House’s thinking at the time and who, like other people interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bushsfault; dhs; fubush; homelandsecurity; thanksbush; wedontmissubush

1 posted on 05/21/2014 7:01:55 PM PDT by kristinn
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To: kristinn
As my Dad (RIP) used to say:

"Nothing's too good for the taxpayers"

The new FBI building here in town certainly fits that category too:


2 posted on 05/21/2014 7:06:55 PM PDT by nascarnation (Toxic Baraq Syndrome: hopefully infecting a Dem candidate near you)
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To: kristinn
Funding ran far short from the start. In 2007, the Bush administration asked for $362 million, but the Democratic-controlled House slashed it to $6 million. “They weren’t going to give Bush that amount of money — because it was Bush,”

There you have it BUSH"S FAULT

3 posted on 05/21/2014 7:08:11 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: kristinn

Considering the quality of the occupants, they should search for an abandoned barn or pig sty in Maryland.


4 posted on 05/21/2014 7:28:57 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (If you lined up the best and brightest of this administration, you'd just have a string of dim bulbs)
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To: RetiredTexasVet

It WAS an insane asylum!


5 posted on 05/21/2014 7:33:18 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (You can count my felonies by looking at my FR replies.)
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To: kristinn

With all the empty building available from closed businesses caused by the robust economy, shouldn’t have to build anything.

Use available buildings in Detroit.


6 posted on 05/21/2014 7:34:16 PM PDT by bobo1 (progressives=commies/fascists)
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To: kristinn

DHS has the same headcount as the USMC and TWICE their budget.

And that was BEFORE all this rot about their gold-plated HQ.


7 posted on 05/21/2014 7:46:06 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: kristinn

“...billed as critical for

enormous cash transfers to our cronies in

Southeast Washington...”

More appropriate.


8 posted on 05/21/2014 7:48:13 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Jack Hammer

They really think such a project will revitalize the ghetto of southeast Washington? Really? The youth gangs will still lay waste to that area, whether this complex is built or not.


9 posted on 05/21/2014 8:19:10 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: kristinn
I hate it when they stop in the middle of construction.


10 posted on 05/21/2014 8:57:56 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: kristinn
A monument to the ill-considered and potentially catastrophic lurch toward police statism by a dazed and confused post-9/11 Bush and a cynical, opportunistic leftwing fifth column in Washington. Thank God this is a derelict boondoggle instead of the dangerously powerful nerve center of an authoritarian intelligence regime it was meant to be.
11 posted on 05/21/2014 9:29:29 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: gaijin
DHS has the same headcount as the USMC and TWICE their budget. And that was BEFORE all this rot about their gold-plated HQ.

I had no idea it was that large...

12 posted on 05/21/2014 10:42:07 PM PDT by GOPJ (If dems will "death panel" our vets they'll damn sure death panel the rest of us...)
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To: GOPJ

Defund the DHS, NSA, IRS and several more and who would really miss them?


13 posted on 05/22/2014 4:49:49 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: DaveA37
Defund the DHS, NSA, IRS and several more and who would really miss them?

Also de-fund the First Lady, who, without an elected office or constitutional authority has a fleet of aircraft, staff and budget at her disposal exceeding that of 136 heads of state.....................

FOR WHAT!!!

14 posted on 05/22/2014 7:05:40 AM PDT by varon (Para bellum)
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To: DaveA37

Someone has to collect taxes - but it doesn’t have to be the Chicago Crime Syndicate... Lois and her fellow thug types need to be shown the door.

A flat tax could downsize that department nicely...

The NSA’s a metaphorical child of the World War II code-breakers. They have a spot... but it can’t be as the thug arm of the democrat party. And the DHS? Paranoid leftists who hate traditional Americans? I’m totally with you on that one... defund them. It’s the Ministry of Truth on speed...


15 posted on 05/22/2014 7:46:02 AM PDT by GOPJ (If dems will "death panel" our vets they'll damn sure death panel the rest of us...)
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