Ken Buck: “As a fellow deficit hawk, you heard about the vacant buildings that the Federal Government owns. I think the most…”

“As a fellow deficit hawk, you heard about the vacant buildings that the Federal Government owns. I think the most accurate number I have heard is 77,000 vacant or underutilized buildings that the Federal Government owns. There have been some estimates that it is a little bit lower than that, but anywhere in that range is absolutely incredible to me. It costs approximately $2 billion a year to just keep those vacant buildings up to speed, whether it is the electricity, the security, the lawn maintenance, all those things--$2 billion a year. We also spend billions of dollars to house Federal employees in office buildings that are privately owned. This has been going on for 10 years. The GAO has been reporting this to Congress. My question to my good friend--and I am not accusing my good friend at all--why doesn't Congress--this is the worst part of it--the GAO, the Government Accounting Office, is a congressional office. Why do we pay for reports to find out about the waste and then ignore the reports that we are paying for about how the executive branch wastes money? What is the answer?”