The Defense Department has agreed to comply with the Government Accountability Office’s recommendations to assess foreign business activities that take place near test and training ranges. GAO has called on DoD to establish guidelines for reviewing foreign encroachment and to work with other federal agencies in obtaining information on commercial …
Read More »Eleanor Holmes Norton: GSA, D.C. Consider Land Swap for DHS St. Elizabeths HQ
The government of the District of Columbia and the U.S. General Services Administration have entered into negotiations regarding the Department of Homeland Security‘s move to the St. Elizabeths campus. GSA proposed to exchange an underutilized federal property for D.C.’s construction services to rehabilitate the streetscape of DHS’ future office complex …
Read More »Dan Tangherlini: GSA Could Work with Private Sector to Shed Federal Real Estate
General Services Administration chief Dan Tangherlini told a Capitol Hill roundtable Tuesday that public-private partnerships are one approach the agency could take to reduce federal real estate, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday. Melissa Dawkins writes that many agencies are re-evaluating real estate costs as budget cuts under sequestration continue. “This …
Read More »OMB On Track to Sell Excess Federal Properties
According to Government Executive, the Obama administration is successfully pursuing its goal of selling federal real estate with $1.48 billion sold to date. The administration recently released an interactive map of 12,000 properties sold or for sale and introduced a dashboard on Performance.gov that tracks the Office of Management and …
Read More »Lawmakers Question Govt. Leasing Costs
The amount of space the federal government leases should be reduced, but the current lease-scoring system hinders such efforts, a Government Accountability Office report says. The Washington Business Journal reports a Senate subcommittee met Thursday to discuss the findings with GAO officials. The 1990 Budget Enforcement Act requires agencies to …
Read More »‘Fiddlin’ Foresters,’ Other Examples of ‘Ridiculous’ Spending to Get Axe from White House Waste Cutters
Just as families across the country are cutting back, the U.S. government must do so as well — and increasingly, administration cost cutters are looking to the low-hanging fruit. The White House announced today the launch of the Campaign to Cut Waste, which aims to cut back on “misspent tax …
Read More »Administration Announces Plan to Sell, Shutter Unused Federal Property
The Obama administration has put forward a plan to close down unused federal facilities across the United States that relies upon an outside commission, similar to the one that helped create the policies for the Base Realignment and Closure plan. There are an estimated 14,000 “surplus” federal facilities, properties that …
Read More »