Norton Expects Project Labor Agreements To Boost Jobs For D.C. Residents

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC, right) said yesterday that she expected the General Services Administration (GSA) award of three Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on federal projects in the District of Columbia to enhance her efforts to ensure the employment of D.C. residents on the projects. “Stimulus funds have given GSA the largest and most complicated projects in the history of the agency,” said Norton. “GSA is being held to a no excuses standard to get the job done on-time, cost effectively, and efficiently.  PLAs have a record of meeting this standard and of meeting the goal I have set for significant employment of D.C. residents.” The projects are awards to green, modernize, and refurbish the GSA Central Office at $160 million, the Lafayette building at $129 million, and six historic buildings on the St. Elizabeths West campus for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters at $57 million.  Norton, who has jurisdiction over the GSA as chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, has pushed for PLAs on federal projects because of their special advantage to taxpayers of on-time completion by skillfully trained workers at a predictable cost, and for the hiring of local residents who can be hired on future projects.