Norton Bill Introduced to Revoke SEC's Leasing Authority

Norton Bill Introduced to Revoke SEC's Leasing Authority

June 27, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) ranking Democrat of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management on Friday introduced a bill to revoke the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) leasing authority, as she announced she would do at the subcommittee's June 16, 2011 hearing on "The Security and Exchange Commission's $500 Million Fleecing of America." At the hearing, SEC Inspector General (IG) H. David Kotz testified that employees ignored the SEC chair's explicit instructions and engaged in possibly criminal violations in a sole-source procurement for almost a million square feet of leased space in the District. The IG found a pattern by the SEC of leasing space throughout the country well beyond the federally approved standards. Norton said that, apart from the abuses the IG documented, she was concerned that continued leasing authority would distract the SEC from its core mission, particularly its new Dodd-Frank jurisdiction to reform the financial industry in the aftermath of the financial crisis. "There is a reason that one agency, the General Services Administration, does all the leasing and building for most federal civilian agencies," Norton said. "It should not be surprising that the SEC's expertise in securities and financial matters did not extend to real estate management."