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Thursday, March 10, 2011
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:16 a.m. in room 2167, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jeff Denham [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Mr. DENHAM. This subcommittee will come to order. Ranking Member Norton will be detained for a short period of time. She is at a different hearing right now, testifying. So we are going to go ahead and get started this morning.
This hearing is focused on the General Services Administration's capital investment and leasing program, and examining ways to cut spending and consolidate Federal office space. Today we are reviewing the 2012 program and the remaining lease prospectuses from the 2011 program.
Given the financial crisis facing our country, we simply must reduce the amount of money we spend to house Federal employees. Excess and under-utilized properties must be eliminated. The price we pay for space has to be controlled. And agencies will have to house more people in less space. The committee intends to scrutinize each project from this perspective, in order to determine if they will save taxpayer money.
We received the President's proposal, 2012 budget proposal, nearly a month ago. That budget proposes to spend $840 million on construction and acquisition projects, and $869 million on repairs and alteration projects. The budget includes funding for specific projects, including ports of entry, FBI consolidations, and the repair and alteration of other Federal buildings.
Our committee just received GSA's fiscal year 2012 capital improvement program yesterday, nearly a month after the release of the President's budget. Year after year, this subcommittee has requested GSA provide its capital investment program early in the year, so that we can act in a timely fashion. I do appreciate that we did receive the program prior to this hearing, and hope we can work with GSA on ensuring timely submission in the future.
I also want to thank Mr. Peck for his response to the letter signed by all the Members of this Committee last week, requesting access and information from the Federal real property profile database regarding GSA properties. I do remain concerned, however, that some of the requests remain outstanding. For example, in January GSA briefed subcommittee staff on the lease prospectuses still pending from the 2011 leasing program, and staff requested information on many of those projects. Responses to those requests were only received yesterday.
In addition, at the hearing we had last month, members of the subcommittee asked for information to be submitted. Many of those deadlines are today, including: the Old Post Office Building, an explanation to the subcommittee why the RFP has not been released; a list of properties losing money on an annual basis in the national capital region-we did have the operating costs in there, but without the revenues associated with that, it does not allow us the opportunity to see whether or not we are losing money; recommendations on any changes needed to existing law to streamline the property disposal process.
We will be coming out with our own recommendations in bill form. So we would certainly like to work with GSA on their recommendations in that process.
I hope we are going to receive the responses to those questions very soon. This committee does not plan to approve leases until we receive this information. I want to make sure GSA is very well aware of that.
The administration's goal of addressing the problem of unneeded and underutilized assets is one that is shared by this subcommittee. It is critical that we have access to relevant information in a timely fashion, so that we can effectively work with GSA and the administration on proposals to stop waste when it comes to our public buildings and facilities. I look forward to working with Mr. Peck on these issues.
And I would just like to add for the record we had a great meeting yesterday over at your office. I appreciate the opportunity not only to get together, but some frank conversation on how we can greatly improve the process and work together.
Ms. Norton will be here shortly, and I will still allow her an opening testimony.
But for now, I would like to call on Mr. Peck for an opening statement.