Comer Announces Hearing with GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) will hold a hearing titled “Oversight of the U.S. General Services Administration.” This full committee hearing will examine the operations of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and how its activities influence billions of dollars in annual discretionary spending on rent, travel, IT and other overhead expenditures across federal agencies. The hearing will also explore how significant savings for taxpayers is achievable by consolidating or reducing the inventory of underutilized and empty federal office space.  “Under the Biden Administration, federal telework levels remain elevated with agencies’ D.C. headquarters offices sitting mostly empty. Even during a maximum telework posture, taxpayer dollars were spent renewing expensive leases on largely empty office buildings and purchasing luxurious furniture for empty conference rooms,” said Chairman Comer. “GSA exists to help federal agencies manage tax dollars efficiently and effectively. The House Oversight Committee has a responsibility to hold GSA and other agencies accountable and to work to prevent any waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds. I look forward to hearing directly from GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan on what steps GSA is taking to rein in discretionary spending across the federal government and ensure taxpayer funds are not being needlessly wasted, including on empty and underutilized properties.”

GSA manages approximately 511 million square feet of office space for federal agencies in buildings owned by the federal government, while leasing nearly 180 million square feet of space from the private sector. Operating and maintaining these buildings, and rent for leased properties, costs taxpayers billions annually. Yet, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently found that 17 of 24 major agency headquarters buildings were less than 25 percent occupied, with some less than 10 percent full. GSA’s own headquarters was only 11 percent utilized, despite the agency being the government’s primary real estate and property manager. In addition, an Axios report described how GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan worked a majority of the time from Missouri even after the agency’s “full re-entry” plan called employees back to their offices.

WHAT: Hearing titled “Oversight of the U.S. General Services Administration”

DATE: Rescheduled forTuesday, November 14, 2023

TIME: 10:00 AM ET

LOCATION: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

WITNESS:

• The Honorable Robin Carnahan, Administrator, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

The hearing will be open to the public and press and will be livestreamed online at https://oversight.house.gov/.