Montgomery County could lose as many as 3,000 federal jobs if efforts to lure some U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offices from Rockville to Prince George’s County are successful.
Montgomery Council members, County Executive Ike Leggett and U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen are fighting efforts to encourage the General Services Administration to send federal jobs to neighboring Prince George’s when a Rockville office lease expires in July 2010. Many say the effort is being led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Last year, a Congressional committee approved allowing the agency to consolidate three leased offices in Rockville and one in Silver Spring into one 935,401-square-foot office lease, and Montgomery leaders want the jobs and the lease to stay in the county.
During a Monday lunch meeting, Council Member Marc Elrich told Sen. Ben Cardin he disapproved of Maryland counties trying to “hijack” each other’s jobs.
“I just think it is not a good policy for us to cannibalize each other because then it results in us racing to the bottom,” Elrich said.
Hoyer’s press secretary Stephanie Lundberg said she could not comment about the congressman’s specific role in negotiations for the office space.
Lundberg did say Hoyer had lobbied extensively to make sure Prince George’s is given “equal consideration” when federal office leases come up for renewal, referencing studies that show Prince George’s has received far fewer government leases than other Washington-area counties.
“Prince George’s has been overlooked and underutilized from the sense of federal government office space,” Lundberg said.
Prince George’s Economic Development Chief Kwasi Holman also declined to discuss the HHS leases in particular, but said Prince George’s leaders have been in “ongoing discussions” with federal government leaders about leasing more offices in the county.
Holman has previously told The Examiner that Maryland counties do not actively poach jobs from each other.
Kristina Ellis, spokeswoman for Montgomery Department of Economic Development, said the county is fighting to keep the jobs in Montgomery.
“Certainly the [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and its several thousand employees are very important to the county’s economy, and we will work as hard as we can to make sure their office requirements are met,” Ellis said.
