"America Builds: Making Federal Real Estate Work for the Taxpayer"

House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management

2025-03-05

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Source: Congress.gov

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Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.
Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management will come to order.
I ask unanimous consent that the chairman be authorized to declare recess at any time during today's hearing.  Without objection, so ordered.  I also ask unanimous consent that members not on the subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee at today's hearing and ask questions.  Without objection, so ordered.  As a reminder,   Members wish to insert a document into the record, please also email it to documentsti at mail.house.gov.  I now recognize myself for the purpose of an opening statement for five minutes.  I want to thank our witnesses for being here today to discuss how we can make federal real estate work for the American taxpayer.   At the beginning of last Congress, this subcommittee hosted a round table with industry stakeholders to help members better understand current market trends in office space and how to right size the federal real estate portfolio.  Building on that round table, this subcommittee held a hearing that highlighted a report published by the Government Accountability Office on the use of space for federal agencies in their headquarters buildings.   The information that GAO uncovered in this report was shocking.  While many federal workers' workspace was underused, I don't think any of us expected to see just how devastating the useless numbers are.  GAO found that a majority of the agencies reviewed used 25% or less of their headquarters building space.  In the case of some agencies, the utilization rate was closer to 9%.  Let that number sink in.   9%.  Even under the Trump administration's return to the office directives, we know there will be unused space because in the same report, at least one agency admitted that even if 100% of their employees returned to the office, 33% of their space would still be empty.
As Mr. Maroney has testified in previous hearings, the federal government spends $2 billion a year to operate and maintain   federal office buildings, regardless of whether the building is being used.  This means that American taxpayers are literally paying billions for federal office space just to sit empty.  In response to the findings from GAO, subcommittee members put forward a slate of bills to improve the use of office space, increase the transparency, and hold agencies accountable.   two key pieces of legislation enacted included.
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First, the Use It Act, which sets targets for space usage, requires deployment of technology to count actual employees using government space and establishes timelines, meaning if agencies don't use their space, they'll lose it.  Secondly, the FASTA Reform Act,   strengthens the authority of the Public Buildings Reform Board to identify federal properties that should be sold.  On January 5, 2025, these reforms and others put forth by committee members became law as part of the Water Resources Development Act, or WERDA, of 2024.  With some deadlines in those reforms approaching quickly, I look forward to working with GSA, OMB, and the Public Buildings Reform Board   on WERDA implementation.  I am pleased that Trump administration hit the ground running by identifying the waste in federal real estate and promptly taking action to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not wasted on empty buildings.  This is not a partisan issue.  Even the mayor of Washington DC has highlighted the negative impact of empty federal offices on the local economy here in DC.  American taxpayers expect Congress to hold the federal government accountable   for all of its wasteful spending, and I look forward to working with the Trump administration to achieve results for our constituents.  Getting a handle on waste in federal real estate can save the taxpayers billions of dollars annually.  Members of both parties should be supportive of this goal.  I now recognize ranking member, Honorable Mr. Stanton, for five minutes for an opening statement.
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Mr. David Winstead
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and before I talk about the issue at hand,   I just want to speak on behalf of all members of Congress that are present.
We lost a colleague last night, our colleague Sylvester Turner, brand new Congress member representing Houston, the former mayor of Houston, and before that a member of the state legislature, sadly passed away after the State of the Union.   And I've known him for many, many years as a former mayor myself.

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