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The Michigan Daily-Saturday, August 5, 1978-Page 7
Senate puts price lid on new office building
should be rescinded, the contracts can-
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate THE PROJECT was denounced as "a ceiling in each senator's office, a third celled, construction halted and the site
ut a $135 million ceiling yesterday on farce," "a marble mausoleum," an gymnasium for the senators, an indoor celledcntrktor altedkand the.
turned into a park or a parking garage.
he cost of a new Senate office building "extreme boondoggle," "a galling tennis court, a rooftop restaurant, a The defense was led by Sen. Dale
hat opponents say would be a symbol of congressional arrogance," marble-lined atrium, a multi-media Bumpers (D-Ark.), who said objections
enatorial palace with its gymnasium, and as "a monument to the waste and center, and expensive landscaping and to the new building should have been
ndoor tennis court and marble-lined extravagance of the United States furniture. raised years ago before construction
trium. Senate." "I MUST SAY this Mussolini-style started.
Despite the spending limitation, the After the 'rhetoric faded, the Senate building is an outrage," Chafee said. "To raise them now is counter-
enate office building named for the voted 54-29 to table and thus kill an Chafee said the Hart building iss-
ate Philip Hart (D-Mich.) still will be amendment by Sen. John Chafee (R- especially offensive because of what productive and self-defeating," he said.
he most expensive federal building in R.I.), which would have stopped the "roaring, raging inflation" is doing to substituting a garage would mean a
istory. project by rescinding $54 million in un- the ordinary people of the country. cost of $100,000 per parking space when
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COSTS OF the building have soared
from a $48 million estimate in 1974 to a
point where cost overruns could reach
as high as $20 million, senators critical
of the project said in debate.
But the building's defenders said the
space it will provide is needed to
alleviate overcrowded conditions in the
two existing Senate office buildings.
"To stop a building with six feet of
steel out of the ground would be the
most laughable thing we could do," said
Sen. Walter Huddleston (D-Ky.).

spent construction funds.
But less than an hour later, Sen.
Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.), chair-
man of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, introduced an amendment
setting a $135 million limit on the cost of
the building.
THAT WAS approved 65 to 13.
The luxury features of the new
building drew the sharpest attack.
Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), called
them "goldplating."
They include expensive wood
paneling and marble, a 16-foot-high

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