Norton Urges GSA to Take Advantage of Current Buyer's Market, Holds Hearing Thursday (6/16/09)
Norton Urges GSA to Take Advantage of Current Buyer's Market, Holds Hearing Thursday on GSA's Stimulus Spending
June 16, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released a copy of a letter the Congresswoman sent to General Service Administration (GSA) officials urging the agency, which currently leases 190 million square feet of office space for 700,000 federal employees, to take advantage of the current buyer's market by renewing leases, purchasing space and other activities that could simultaneously save taxpayer funds and stimulate the economy. The Congresswoman requested, within 45 days, a report detailing the existing leases where the government occupies an entire commercial office building or where the government is a principal tenant in a commercial office building in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with two or more years remaining on the lease. In addition, Norton is requiring GSA to confront the troublesome area of hold-over leases. GSA also must submit, within 45 days, a report on whether these leases should be cancelled, renewed or extended and the benefits to the government of taking such action. The Congresswoman urges GSA to identify and evaluate opportunities for early renewal and extension of existing leases in other major metropolitan areas of the United States as well.
Norton, who chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, with oversight of GSA, also will hold a hearing on the agency's FY 2010 budget used thus far, and on the progress of GSA in allocating its $5.5 billion in stimulus funds and $3 million for pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeship programs funded through a Norton amendment. The hearing will be held Thursday, June 18, 2 p.m., room 2167.
Norton said this is prime time for GSA to get the best deals for taxpayers. "The Subcommittee wants GSA to take advantage of this recessionary market rather than become victimized by it," Norton wrote in her letter to the agency that leases slightly more space than it owns. "As perhaps the largest customer of office space in the real estate market, there are multiple opportunities."
To access the letter to GSA officials, click here.