Issa, Mica Press OMB to Deliver Promised Federal Real Property Documents

Letter Raises Possibility of Subpoena for Federal Real Property Documents

WASHINGTON – House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., raised the possibility of subpoenaing the Office of Management and Budget for documents related to federal real property holdings, which the agency promised to produce in December 2011 but still has not provided.

According to a letter, sent late yesterday and co-signed by Chairman Issa and Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., “On March 20, 2013, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reported to the full House, H.R. 328, the Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act of 2013…. In order to inform this legislation and to assist in our ongoing oversight efforts in this area, the Committee has repeatedly requested Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) data held by OMB, and yet these requests have consistently gone unfulfilled.”

“On December 19, 2011, the Committee wrote to then-Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey D. Zients requesting to obtain, among other things, FRPP data pertaining to all federal real property valued at $50 million or more and which does not currently meet federal government needs, including those properties which OMB may or may not consider to be ‘high value assets,’” the letter states. “Yet, these commitments remain unfulfilled. “

“Should OMB continue to ignore the Committee’s requests, we will have no alternative but to consider the use of compulsory process to obtain the requested documents and information,” the letter continues.

Last year, the Subcommittee on Government Operations held four hearings on the approximately $1.5 billion spent annually on vacant or underutilized federal real properties, including a March 8, 2013 field hearing at the vacant David W. Dyer Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Fla.

You can read a complete copy of the letter here.