A House subcommittee chairman Wednesday called on the Justice Department to investigate the planned relocation of the Federal Communications Commission to a new office building in Washington.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, questioned $1 million paid to two attorneys by the developer who built the Portals development, a southwest Washington complex. The General Services Administration negotiated with the developer, Franklin Haney, on the FCC's lease for the building. Haney hired lawyers Peter Knight and James Sasser to help with the negotiations. Sasser is now the Clinton administration's ambassador to China.
Barton has held hearings to look at whether the high payments point to the use of improper political influence to bypass government procedures. Now he wants the Justice Department to look into those allegations as well.
The attorneys and the developer deny any wrongdoing.
The FCC's move has been a decade-long ordeal, during which GSA and the FCC have fought over security, cost and location issues. GSA selected the Portals site as a new home for the FCC in 1988, but the FCC objected and GSA canceled the lease. In 1994, a federal appeals court sided with the building's owner and ruled the cancellation illegal. But the FCC continued to fight the move.
In January 1996, GSA signed a new 20-year, $420 million lease for the offices. The building was still under construction and wasn't completed until May of this year. After the building was finished, FCC officials asked GSA for $2 million to $6 million worth of floor-plan changes. In June, GSA canceled the lease on the agency's downtown headquarters and ordered it to pack up and move.
GSA spokesman Hap Connors said the move is scheduled to begin Oct. 23. FCC spokeswoman Maureen Peratino also said the move will go ahead, following a final "walk-through" of the facility by FCC officials on Friday. Peratino said the FCC may have to furlough employees to pay $9 million in extra annual rent costs for the new building.
NEXT STORY: Dems see gains from lengthy budget talks