Rep. Richard L. Ottinger (D.NY) has called on the General Services Administration to “immediately terminate” a U.S. lease on a 12-story building in Washington purchased by the government of Kuwait.
Ottinger also asked Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger to assist the GSA’s administrator, Jack Eckard, to end the 18-year contract at $2.3 million each year from “a foreign government which actively discriminates against American citizens in clear violation of federal policy and law.”
In announcing his protests, Ottinger said today he was referring to “Kuwait’s active participation in the Arab boycott of more than 1500 American firms doing business with Israel.”
The government of Kuwait purchased the building near the State Department March 3 for $22 million. Under its lease, the GSA is committed to paying the Kuwait is at least $41 million in rentals, Ottinger said. Seven federal agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission use the building.
In his letter to Kissinger, Ottinger said he realized certain legal and foreign policy implications might arise from the termination of the lease. “Under no circumstances, however,” Ottinger wrote, “should the federal government rent a property of this size from a government which discriminates against many of the very taxpayers who help pay for the rental.”
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