Homeland Security to move into Washington headquarters

The Homeland Security Department will establish its initial headquarters at a Navy facility in Washington, rejecting a proposal to move to one of several office complexes in Northern Virginia.

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, told reporters Wednesday that top officials of the department would move into a four-story building at the U.S. Naval Security Station at Nebraska and Massachusetts avenues in Washington.

The Washington Post reported that Homeland Security will immediately relocate about 100 staff members from temporary offices in downtown Washington to the Navy site. But the department has yet to decide how many employees will ultimately move to the new location, or where the permanent headquarters of the department will be located.

Bush administration officials told the paper that the department's security and operational needs could not be met at a suburban office building.

"The facility at the Nebraska Avenue complex provides the department with the assets needed to begin operations immediately," Johndroe said. "This facility will house the office of the secretary, and no decisions have been made about the incoming agencies."

Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the General Services Administration, working on behalf of the Homeland Security Department, had narrowed choices for temporary headquarters to several office complexes in Northern Virginia.

Earlier this month, the House approved a 10-year, $250 million plan for Homeland Security to lease a headquarters facility, a move that was widely viewed as aiding plans to locate the new department in the Virginia suburbs. The House approved a prospectus that calls for 225,000 square feet to 275,000 square feet for the new headquarters, paving the way for GSA to award a lease.

District of Columbia and Maryland officials protested that move, saying it had kept Congress from modifying a selection process that was biased towards Northern Virginia. "Even prior to the [approval] of the lease provision ... the District of Columbia never had a fair chance to get the lease for the temporary headquarters," Norton said at a press conference on Jan. 8.

Laura Olsen, assistant director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a Washington-based pro-transit group, said she was pleased that the administration chose to locate its initial headquarters close to the center of the region, and not far from a Metro station. "It is a wise choice, fiscally and environmentally," Olsen said.

The Tenleytown-American University stop on Metro's red line is the closest station to the building. The station is about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Navy site, Olsen said, and a shuttle bus is available to transport employees between the two locations.

The Homeland Security Department will bring together 22 agencies and 170,000 civil servants. But at a December meeting with employees slated to work in Homeland Security, Ridge said few of them would be shifted into new offices right away.

"Most people will remain where they are," Ridge said. "People at the borders will stay at the border and people in the forest will stay in the forest. There's not going to be some sort of massive dislocation of employees."

Olsen said the headquarters location at Nebraska and Massachusetts avenues makes sense for a small staff who will work in the facility temporarily, but that it may not be an ideal situation for a larger workforce. The administration should be looking for permanent office space "on top of a Metro stop," she said.

According to the administration's reorganization plan for the new department, Jan. 24 is the deadline for formally establishing the Office of the Secretary and other offices within the department's major divisions. Jan. 24 is also the deadline for appointing as many of the department's top officials as possible.

Over the last few months, the president has announced his nominees for several top jobs in the Homeland Security Department, including the positions of secretary, deputy secretary and undersecretary for border and transportation security. Only Ridge has been confirmed so far.