A request for regular audits of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation has made it one step closer to being passed by Congress as the iconic structure undergoes a massive rehabilitation and construction project.
The amendment by District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton passed as part of a surface transportation bill that was approved by a House of Representative Transportation Committee early Friday morning. The amendment requires a financial and management audit every two years of USRC, which manages Union Station and coordinates the transportation and retail housed there.
In a news release, Norton said that the considerable federal investment that saved Union Station “demands more consistent oversight, especially today when USRC is engaged in an unprecedented and simultaneous transformation of all aspects of Union Station.” She warned that “Congress is unlikely to rescue Union Station again, as it did in the 1980s, and is concerned about whether the USRC leases, payments and other income are sufficient to ensure that the facility will be self-supporting in the long run.”
A first-of-its kind audit was requested in December by Norton and Rep. Nick Rahall, D.-W.Va., asking the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General to investigate Union Station’s management and finances as the station prepared to undergo major changes in addition to repairing damage from the Aug. 23 earthquake that hid the mid-Atlantic region.
The bill transportation was passed out of committee during a session that lasted from 9 a.m. Thursday until 2:30 a.m. Friday.
