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Check this page for what's new on the site, what projects we've begun and completed, what message forums have been added, etc.
We will also highlight news stories and other items of interest!
Please enjoy your stay!
GSA Asleep at the Wheel: GAO Says Federal Courthouses Overbuilt
Posted 06-06-2010 at 11:40 AM by webixi
GSA Asleep at the Wheel
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that new federal courthouses have been overbuilt, which has resulted in wasted tax dollars. According to a May 25, 2010 article in The Washington Times, written by Matthew Cella, the GAO reported that taxpayers have been forced to spend $835 million in excess construction costs since fiscal year 2000 and spend $51 million annually in excess maintenance costs. The GAO report also noted that federal courthouses have 3.56 million square feet of unnecessary space.
Taxpayers have to ask ourselves the question, how did this happen? Did the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency tasked with real estate management for the federal government, fall asleep at the wheel? According to the GAO’s report, that is exactly the case; a lack of oversight has resulted in more wasted tax dollars and more to come. Those of us who write the checks for our winter heating bills and summer cooling bills know that heating and cooling small residences can add up. Heating excess space the size of many airplane hangars is even more expensive. Unfortunately, the waste in not likely to end anytime soon; taxpayers will be forced to keep paying maintenance bills in perpetuity.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was quoted in the May 25, 2010 Washington Times article saying, “For some time now, GSA has considered not only courts, but federal agencies to be GSAs consumers rather than the American taxpayer. Time and time again over the past decade, the agency has allowed the courts and federal agencies to redesign, reassign and rethink space decisions with apparently no thought of the financial consequences.”
Taxpayers continue to struggle with trillion-dollar budget deficits and nearly 10 percent unemployment, which makes government waste like this especially disconcerting.
Source:
http://swineline.org/2010/06/02/gsa-...-at-the-wheel/
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Related:
Building oversize federal courts wastes millions
Federal courthouses built larger than necessary have cost taxpayers $835 million in wasted construction funds since 2000 while the extra space requires $51 million annually to maintain, the Government Accountability Office told a congressional committee on Tuesday.
The GAO found that the 33 courthouses or courthouse annexes completed in the past decade contain 3.56 million square feet of unnecessary space, said Mark L. Goldstein, the GAO's director of physical infrastructure issues.
A GAO draft report says the wasted space is enough to house about nine average-sized courthouses and blamed the extra space, in part, on a lack of oversight by the General Services Administration (GSA), the real estate arm of the federal government.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting congressional representative and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on economic development, public buildings and emergency management, said the waste was unacceptable at a time when federal services and programs were being pared back.
"For some time now, GSA has considered not only courts, but federal agencies to be GSAs consumers rather than the American taxpayer," she said. "Time and time again over the past decade, the agency has allowed the courts and federal agencies to redesign, reassign and rethink space decisions with apparently no thought of the financial consequences."
Mrs. Norton, a Democrat, also said Congress would authorize no new federal courthouse construction without details on programs to control spending.
Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he was "deeply concerned overall that the courthouse construction program has not been administered well by GSA.
"Squandering funds by overbuilding projects is always a mistake, but to do so in an era when funding for GSA capital projects is severely constrained begins to border on the outrageous," he said.
Mr. Oberstar noted, however, that some standards of measurement used by GAO to produce the audit would not have been applied before 2007 and called the measurements an "aggressive estimate" of wasted space.
Nevertheless, he wondered whether waste estimates would double if GAO had analyzed the 66 federal courthouses built in the past 20 years as opposed to just the 33 projects completed in the past decade.
Read the rest of the article:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...stes-millions/
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that new federal courthouses have been overbuilt, which has resulted in wasted tax dollars. According to a May 25, 2010 article in The Washington Times, written by Matthew Cella, the GAO reported that taxpayers have been forced to spend $835 million in excess construction costs since fiscal year 2000 and spend $51 million annually in excess maintenance costs. The GAO report also noted that federal courthouses have 3.56 million square feet of unnecessary space.
Taxpayers have to ask ourselves the question, how did this happen? Did the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency tasked with real estate management for the federal government, fall asleep at the wheel? According to the GAO’s report, that is exactly the case; a lack of oversight has resulted in more wasted tax dollars and more to come. Those of us who write the checks for our winter heating bills and summer cooling bills know that heating and cooling small residences can add up. Heating excess space the size of many airplane hangars is even more expensive. Unfortunately, the waste in not likely to end anytime soon; taxpayers will be forced to keep paying maintenance bills in perpetuity.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was quoted in the May 25, 2010 Washington Times article saying, “For some time now, GSA has considered not only courts, but federal agencies to be GSAs consumers rather than the American taxpayer. Time and time again over the past decade, the agency has allowed the courts and federal agencies to redesign, reassign and rethink space decisions with apparently no thought of the financial consequences.”
Taxpayers continue to struggle with trillion-dollar budget deficits and nearly 10 percent unemployment, which makes government waste like this especially disconcerting.
Source:
http://swineline.org/2010/06/02/gsa-...-at-the-wheel/
--------------------------------------------------
Related:
Building oversize federal courts wastes millions
Federal courthouses built larger than necessary have cost taxpayers $835 million in wasted construction funds since 2000 while the extra space requires $51 million annually to maintain, the Government Accountability Office told a congressional committee on Tuesday.
The GAO found that the 33 courthouses or courthouse annexes completed in the past decade contain 3.56 million square feet of unnecessary space, said Mark L. Goldstein, the GAO's director of physical infrastructure issues.
A GAO draft report says the wasted space is enough to house about nine average-sized courthouses and blamed the extra space, in part, on a lack of oversight by the General Services Administration (GSA), the real estate arm of the federal government.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting congressional representative and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on economic development, public buildings and emergency management, said the waste was unacceptable at a time when federal services and programs were being pared back.
"For some time now, GSA has considered not only courts, but federal agencies to be GSAs consumers rather than the American taxpayer," she said. "Time and time again over the past decade, the agency has allowed the courts and federal agencies to redesign, reassign and rethink space decisions with apparently no thought of the financial consequences."
Mrs. Norton, a Democrat, also said Congress would authorize no new federal courthouse construction without details on programs to control spending.
Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he was "deeply concerned overall that the courthouse construction program has not been administered well by GSA.
"Squandering funds by overbuilding projects is always a mistake, but to do so in an era when funding for GSA capital projects is severely constrained begins to border on the outrageous," he said.
Mr. Oberstar noted, however, that some standards of measurement used by GAO to produce the audit would not have been applied before 2007 and called the measurements an "aggressive estimate" of wasted space.
Nevertheless, he wondered whether waste estimates would double if GAO had analyzed the 66 federal courthouses built in the past 20 years as opposed to just the 33 projects completed in the past decade.
Read the rest of the article:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...stes-millions/
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