STATEMENT OF DCI BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OT THE CIA REQUEST FOR APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS TO CONSTRUCT THE CIA HEADQUARTERS INSTALLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63T00245R000100170071-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 27
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2006
• Sequence Number: 71
• Publication Date: July 15, 1955
• Content Type: SPEECH

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STATEMENT OF THE D ORE THE DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE SUB OF THE SENATE
APPROPRIATIONS C IN SUPPORT OF THE
CIA REQUEST FOR AP IATIpN OF FUNDS TO
CONSTRUCT THE CIA UARTERS INSTALLATION,
deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear before
you today in support of our request for appropriations in the
amount of $54, 5W, 000 to provide for the construction of a
garters installation for the central Intelligence Agency.
The authorization for this construction is contained in Title IV
of H. R. 6829, the Military Construction Act of 1955, which is
presently before the President for signature.
S
MORKIDIF
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IV of the 111 M- nstruction Act authorizes
the Director of Central In i ice to spend not to exceed
construction tithe installation and $8, ,
3nsfer to the National --'I Planning Commission and
the Department of Interior uisition of land for and
construction to extend the Washington Memorial
Parkway from Its present t to the site of the Research
Station of the Bureau of Public Roads at Langley In Fairfax
County, Virginia. It CIA does not utilize the Langley site,
I not be available for obligation. Title IV
ruler authorizes not to exceed $1, 000,, 000 for the acquisition
of the site Itself.
Chapter III of H. R. 7278, the supplemental appropriations
bill now before you,, appropriates $3, lam, 000 for CIA to prepare
detail plans and specifications, rather than the full amount of
the authorization.
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There Is no reason *dWeal the fact that we need a
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headquarters Installation, or _ . we have considered several
sues for Its location. It wou m to be unrealistic and a
or the request for appropriations. A good deal of the testimony
which we are furnishing In support of this authorization can
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concept security to a mph to conceal either our need
nly be made a matter of your public record.
Hmaer, I would appreciate the opportunity of discussing
of our request on an off-the-record basis with
this Committee. In particular, I would wish to have testimony
ig the exact number of people employed at the
headQuarters and certain security aspects of the Installation
-record. For this reason I have requested that this
n Executive Session following which, Mr. Chairman,
It It I agreeable with you, the text can be edited for security
ons prior to publication.
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The Central Intellig Agency Is presently located in
separate buildings In th+ :1ct of Columbia area. These
range from the Administratib n _f~F,. Ildi ng, where my own office
Is Tecate at 24th and E Stre s, 'Northwest behind the Heurich
25X1
my brewery on Rock Creek Parkway, to our Documents
Division, which is housed In a temporary building
of our buildings are clustered around the Administration
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building, others are over by the Reflecting Pool In front of the
Lincoln Memorial, others are In the Potomac Park area.
Twenty of these buildings are of the so-called "Temporary'
variety, and the demand for their destruction increases daily
from many quarters, Including the Congress. For this reason,
our authorization language contains a proviso that when CIA
uples Its new Installation, GSA Is directed to demolish ter ra
building space equivalent to that which we relinquish.
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C18rt 2
(Overlay)
s
Furthermore, the approaches te proposed new Potomac
River bridge or tunnel wilt 4 . ough some of our tempora
s, thus eliminating considerable
as our permanent b M
VMM
our present space.
The need for CIA to something about a headquarters
Installation has been with us for several years now, but the
tern has become Increasingly urgent since we first discussed
h the Congress In 1951. During this four-year period we
have made a series of attempts to find an adequate building In
Washington which could house at least the bulk of our personnel.
We have been unsuccessful. The General Services Administration
tells us that there Is nothing adequate available, and that we must
build. Aside from the lack of available facilities, we feel a
centralized Installation tailored to our particular needs
would pay for Itself over a reasonable period of time not only In
Improved security, but In increased efficiency and economy of
operations.
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n.te on the udlo
OOr being sad
widely separated hul ngs Is Ding when one considers the
number of highly cla# papers which must Brea d
bull lngs th the course of a singled '
This point fight 4 e; lest #1 #r d the fath
approximately 100, 4 If led in ell/ ence f~Umen are
received In o r' CollactIo Division etch month. when you
vy~
add to this total the various. cla if , ra de staff
studies and similar mater) ,N M ating within t we. have
a daily average of approximately .5o 000 classified document,,
moving from one CIA building to at least one Other CIA
building in the course of an ordinary working day. Many
of these documents are necessarily at the top levels of
security classification.
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low,
The loss of any one of these
"stile party could
ie national security or to ccess of some
r covert
operations, and possibly could tv the cat of some of our
rya and ;F .. _
Covert personnel aid agents.
When l recall What we have been able to accomplish in
certain major cities abroad, with the connivance of a courier
ng his periodic rounds between dispersed buildings,,. and
then stop to think what some foreign agent might be able to
us between our uildings, my concern and a iarm about
this situation increases daily, 25X1
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1,
A
full effectiveness nc security controls on the one
may
e, centralized, and disci ,.mod organization allows
hand, and faces the opposition, {an almost Insuperable task
ntitying key personnel on ether.
The risks that our national security Is asked to endure In
this make-shift assortment of buildings are plainly intolerable
risks, which must be eliminated at the earliest opportunity, for
even If the cost of anew building were a net loss, rather than a
long term saving, It would be cheap compared to the jeopardy In
which we might be placed were our national Intelligence system
be compromised by an enemy nation.
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a smaller number of entrances,
hat th c
5y
surveillance devices that cart 1p, f- steiled, we will be able to
careful control of parking s . and certain technics
quickly individu~ . might attempt to Identify
rsonnel.
ntiaamab#e# and even with the best of sprinkler system. It
An additional security problem is the fire hazard in
ng personnel and documents, including some of our mos
valued tiles, In temporary buildings. These tempos.. are
ble insure adequate protection against fire.
I can give an example, Mr. Chairman, what we are
t you will recall the very heavy rains which we had
0
ak-end. This resulted in the flooding of
several areas in a building which occupy at 26th Street and
Rock Creek Parkway, which you
roller skating rink.
old
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The storm sewers were Ina to carry off the rain water.
On that Friday afternoon, a dnA racked up covering the floor
bur vaults which contains
with two inches water In o
several million IBM type cards`drr which we record and Index
Intelligence documents and Information.
All the bottom file drawers had to be removed from some
d file cabinets. Friday evening, after some repairs, the
drain backed up again, pouring water all over the floor. The
water backed up high enough In the drain to cause it to overflow
at the level of the vault ceiling, thereby pouring water over all
the card files at one end of the vault and so weakening the ceiling
that It fell down on top of the cabinets.
Officials of this section were notified at 1h30 that n
at had happened, and the staff of the division was mobilized
and worked until 2:00 o'clock Saturday morning mopping up water
and removing cards.
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Portions of 100 I BNB card trays holding 300, punched cards
were soaked. It Is Impossible even yet to estimate how many
of these cards are completely unuseable because If they become
- Machine Room and Cardunch Room were under water.
At 2:00 a. m. we were assure The Public Building Service
}
that the situation was reme a d the drain cleared.
Nevertheless It backed up a at o Saturday morning.
Approximately 50 percent of moult area and parts of the
pod they cannot be run through IBM machines. Every
effort Is being made to dry them properly, but if they have to
educed,. It will be both costly and time consuming. I
can offer you no better Illustration for the need for a
permanent type building.
The security of our telephone system leaves much to
desired when we must connbuildings through a central
switchboard.
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This can
low se r and tap proof under present
Ions, but If we were to 1e modern equipment properly
Installed In a single building uld provide a reasonably
secure telephone system
ate also that we could save
per year, which Is out W annum mileage charge for
trunk lines between our buildings and our central switchboard.
I think that we'can all agree that from the standpoint
of efficiency our operations will greatly Improved by being
all together In one building. As you know, a great deal of
our business cannot be conducted over the telephone, but
must be handled face to face. If I wish to talk to my Director
of Security on a matter, he must come to my office from a
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ry building at the far end of the Reflecting pool.
ant the translation of a document It must go to
or the translator must come to 24th Street Northwest
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reference work in our library must go to a building almost a
quarter of a mile away. The copies of course we can mu
daily and by the hundreds.
An economic intelligence an who wishes to consul
would now like to comment Mr. Chairman, on some
other tangible dollar savings which will accrue If we are in a
art 3 single building. As you can see from this chart, we estimate
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that an annual savings of almost $3, , 000 may be expected
from the consolidation our headquarters activities, which
In a little less than 19 years will equal the capital cost of the
building.
In constructing this new building, we are making plans
cnart4 to r,ousi
awaiting reassignment as well as a slight expansion to
for those who return Washington on temporary duty or who
While this Is In excess of our present
-board strength In Washington, it will allow for desk space
handle emergencies.
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E
with the General services
are working very Owl
of our building requirements.
Administration in the devely
OR,
art 6 As can be seen on this chart we Are planning on a building to
contain a total o gross space. We are
Ing for the highest possible ratio of net to gross space, and
e to utilize a space-per-person ratio which Is appreciably
e average In similar Government buildings In the
circulation and.service space such as corridors, stairways, toilets,
metropolitan area. I n any building there is a certain amours
orth, which makes up the difference between net space
and gross space.
For Instance, the net to gross ratio In the Pentagon is
slightly less than 6 to 1, whereas we are seeking a figure of
7 to 10. We are asking for nothing but space in which we can
operate securely and efficiently under one roof, and we shall
neither recommend nor accept devices or fittings that exceed
our minimum requirements in this regard.
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IAW low
V" tj
f
~l A
plan to have a simple and , _ ,fled exterior. we are work, working
closely with GSA on space requirements and cost estimate
wish at this time, Mr. rirman, to discuss the
ocatlon of this proposed ins , We first faced the problem
as to how far from the District of Columbia we should locate.
eached the conclusion that In order to our work
openly we must remain close to the President the members
the National Security Council, the State Department and
the Penton, as well as the Congress and other agencies of
ment. This we felt meant that we should not more
than twenty minutes from the White House under normal
traffic conditions. Following Cabinet discussions of this
e office of Defense .? ilization has granted u
Chart8 waiver from current dispersal standards. We then undertook
(Large
lam) the investigation of numerous sites, both federally and privately
owned.
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30
have decided that Est suitable is a portion of the
government-owned land at Virginia. This is a try
of approximately 300 acres, a "hundred of which can ma
available to us. At the time t authorization language
for the Military Construction Xmas submitted to the Congress
were still certain unresolved factors In connection with the
site, particularly with regard to roads, water,,, sewers,, etc.
However, when we appeared before the Senate Armed
Services Committee, these matters with the exception of the
road had been resolved and the Board of County Supervisors
of Fairfax County, their Chamber of Commerce, the McLean
Business Association, and the Fairfax County Planning
Commission all urged that we come to the Langley site.
The road is, however, a major problem in connection
with utilizing Langley.
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has authorized, as you know, construction of the George
w
shington Memorial Parkway which, when completed,
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The present road - Highway ihich passes the entrance to
the site -- is only a two-lane and a very dangerous one
at that it would not be adeq i handle the morning and
evening traffic it we were to 1 . r.t Langley. However, Congress
run from fount Vernon to the Great Falls on the Virginia si
of the Potomac.
Despite some recent newspaper publicity quoting opponents
of our move to Ungley, and some letters which have been received
members of the Congress stating that no highway was
authorized on the Virginia side above Memorial Bridge, and that
this land was for park purposes only, the fact remains that
Public Law 284 of the list Congress approved on the 29th of May,
provides that funds shall be appropriated as required --
and iquote --
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"for the expeditious, omical, and efficient
development and *,-W of the following projects.-
he Georg h i ngn Memorial Parkway,
to Include the shore~W a Potomac, and adjacent
lands,, from Mount : to a point above the
Great Falls on the Virginia side, except within the
city of Alexandria, . Ii
The government has planned for a long period of time to complete
this parkway from Its present terminus approximately 3-112 miles
below Chain Bridge to Its eventual terminus at the Great Falls.
I n order for C I A to occupy the Langley site It will be
necessary to have a seven mile stretch of the George Washington
Memorial Parkway from its present terminus to the Langley site
completed at the same time that our own installation would be
for occupancy at Langley.
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The Senate Armed S Committee at our request
wrote a provision Into Title I ,he au orizatior legislation
which would allow us to trari _ the National Capt
Planning Commission the necessary sums for them to complete
the acquisition of the right of way for the Parkway to the
Langley site, and to transfer the necessary sums to the
parkway
the Interior to construct the extension of the
esent terminus to the Langley site, a distance
Dut seven miles. The total authorization for this purpose
use Armed Services Committee was also persuaded
as to the merits of this possible location, and they accepted the
Senate amendment In conference. However, I could not make a
e selection Involving Langley until I was assured of the
authorization for the George Washington Memorial Parkway
extension.
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lef "e Congressional was completed on the Military
construction bill, it was nec for me to appear before the
House Appropriations omml , showed them, as I have
shown you gentlemen this mo the sites which we were
considering. But the House Aii4lations Committee felt that
since CIA had not definitely selected a site, they would appropriate
for us only the sum of $3, lam, 000 with which we were to prepare
ns and specifications for the headquarters Installation.
did not Include the , 000 which we need at the same
for transfer to start the acquisition of rights of way and
extension of the parkway, if we are to locate at Langley.
Unless these funds are presently forthcoming,
parkway would not be completed at the time we were ready
occupy Langley,, and thus might make that site unavailable.
would then be at a loss in drawing plans and specifications,
because we would not know for certain what site we were going
occupy and what engineering adjustments would have to
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SEM- ff---
e were not to go ley we would need up to a
on dollars to acquire a site -- presumably the Winkler
property at Alexandria -- but . R. 7278 as reported In the
House did not appropriate to uM funds for land acquisition,
therefore, we not know whether the Winkler tract would
ailable to us next year when additional funds could be
granted. We would therefore be in a dilemma in drawing plans
the Winkler tract without assurance that It would be
available.
It Is. my feeling that the House Appropriations Committee
withheld these funds because we had not selected a site. At
that time we were unable to do so, until we were assured of the
authorization.
I now wish to state to this Committee, Mr. Chairman, thai
the Central Intelligence Agency has reached the decision that It
wishes to locate its headquarters Installation at the present site
of the Research Station of the Bureau of Public Roads at Langley,
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Virginia.
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will draw our plans and s W. ations to meet that site, but
In order for us to do so, we nu ?ave assurances as to the
funds for the parkway extension, so that the remaining rights
can acquired and coy ction started. This
Vie, I am Informed, the sane-year period of time which
will be necessary to construct our headquarters installation.
Ing made this decision regarding a site, I wish to urge most
strongly on this Committee that In addition to the $3, 000, 000
which has been Included by the House Appropriations Committee
In H. R. 7'278, that we be given an additional O OOP for the
purposes which I have just described, making a total of $7
Rlations at this time.
At the time that we made our presentation to the House
Appropriations Committee we felt that It might be advisable to
finance the cost of this construction from unobligated balances
for fiscal years 1953 and 1954.
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Following general government ? - tlce, these funds are
available for expenditure for a of two years after theyear
of obligation, after which the riaions lapse and the
emalning funds are covered
Treasury.
~ *r 0
had such funds available, and you wilt note that
Chapter Iii of H. R. 7279 -- the supplemental Appropriations
Bill now before you -- appropriates $3, 000t 000 to be derived from
unobilgated balances of appropriations made available to the
Central Intelligence Agency for the fiscal years 1953 and 1954.
However, I have since been Informed that the senior members
the House Appropriations Subcommittee which handled this
matter are unalterably opposed to the use of our unexpended
for this purpose, as they feel that It will impair the
security of our appropriations. Therefore, I not think that the
muse Committee Is prepared to appropriate further funds for this
on from unobilgated balances.
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24.
I, therefore, would I request Mr. Chairman, that
this subcommittee rewrite C qw III of H. R. 7278soasto
make a direct appropriation f a purposes rather than to use
unexpended balances. If thi ne, I believe the House
free to such additional appropriations as your
ake in line with my request
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I am Informed that there are a fey
ners In the Langley area who object to our Instal
being constructed there. I wish to call your attention to this
brochure which was presented to us by the Fairfax County
Chamber of Commerce.
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On June Ist 1955, t President of the Fairfax
County Chamber of Comm er~ pte us -- and I quote --
knowledge, a single
"Without to the bp #,
dissent among our-"" than 450 members,
presenting the l tlaz 7 .r ss leadership of
Fairfax County, the Fairfax County Chamber
of Commerce welcomes the CIA to Fairfax
County . . , We want you In Fairfax County
. On 27 May, Wallace Carper, Chairman of the Board of
County Supervisors of Fairfax County, wrote me extending
"a cordial welcome to use the Bureau of Public Roads
near Langley. " He called to my attention the action
of his board assuring provisions for services which come
Ithin the jurisdiction of the County of Fairfax.
McLean Business Association passed a resolution In
favor of our occupying the Langley site as did the Great Falls
a membership of 242 members.
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The Editor and Pubii o the Providence Journal in
rote me on June 1t they were pleased to learn
ny miscoonceptlo.L-arding the attitude of the
w
residents of the McLean area Wd the location the CIA
office building at Langley, e finally been cleared up,
and that your organization is again seriously considering
Langley site. '4 Mr. Smith stated that as editor of the Iota
weekly newspaper they were confident that the majority of the
residents of thearea welcomed CIA as a desirable addition to
the community.
The Chairman of the Fairfax County Planning Commission,
Keith Price, wrote us on the 1st of June that the members
of the Commission had formally voted an invitation of welcome
to us.
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`thus, gentlemen, the f _ led representatives of the
REM
people of this area in the forte the Board of County Supervisors,
as well as the Chamber of Commerce, and the Planning
ssion, and many indl reidents of the area,
have extended their cordial a to us If we are to utilize
the Langley site. In addition they have on their own
initiative found ways and means to overcome many of the
obstacles which confronted us in the beginning.
With this support I have reached my determination,
and I hope that you gentlemen will appropriate the $7, , ..
necessary to get this project underway at Langley.
1 feet strongly that detail plans and specifications should
red f o r a definite site. I f for any reason you cannot
grant my request for the Parkway, then I would select the
Winkler site, However, I would still need an additlo
quire the site, or a total of $4, 00Q, off.
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