then dan bernal, speaker of the house nancy pelosi's director. we have megan miller, field representative for barbara boxer. also joinin us is the vice presidnent. moving here is a great treat for gsa. it will the -- be the hub of activity. this will be a state-of-the-art facility. during the depression, arthur brown jr. designed a new federal building in san francisco. he went out of his way to make this a complementary feature of the nearly-completed pacific center area. the civic center is a scene of events of great importance, including the founding of the united nations and the peace treaties with world war ii. this shows as a poll reform moving to the united states. the architecture and plans are regarded as some of the finest and most complete manifestations of the beautiful movement. there is a scholar of classical architecture that says that this is the greatest ensembles of architecture in america. in 1899, the mayor was considering concepts the proposed establishing the grand civic center for san francisco. and leon know what had happe

please welcome dan bernal. >> thank you. thank you, jeff and mayor newsom. this is the only $122 million coin in the country. in washington they have just extended the middle class tax cuts with the voting that was done. they worked hard for the recovery act, but none of this was congressionally directed. they understood what this would do for the country, what this would do for the economy in the bay area to create green jobs, and this would set an example for the sustainable architecture. i would like to thank our friends with the architectural firm as well. she could not be here but ask me to read a few words to you. thank you for inviting me to join you at the construction kickoff ceremony for the renovation of the u.s. general services regional headquarters, the beautiful and historic 50 united nations plaza building. the american recovery and reinvestment act is making a very historic investment to upgrade and modernize federal buildings and make them energy- efficient, including $122 million for the united nations plaza building. this will save with p