Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Chair Graves and Ranking Member Larsen for bringing this important bill…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Chair Graves and Ranking Member Larsen for bringing this important bill to the floor. This bill would revoke the independent real estate leasing authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission and direct the Government Accountability Office to update its 2016 report on independent real estate leasing authority in the Federal Government. The House passed this bill last Congress. While a number of Federal agencies have independent real estate leasing authority, the SEC has a history of egregious real estate practices. In 2005, the SEC disclosed that it had unbudgeted costs of approximately $48 million for the construction of its headquarters near Union Station. In 2007, after moving into headquarters, the SEC shuffled its employees to different office space at a cost of over $3 million without any cost-benefit analysis or justifiable explanation. In 2010, the SEC conducted a deeply flawed analysis to justify the need to lease 900,000 square feet and to commit over $500 million over 10 years, overestimating its space needs by over 300 percent. In addition, the SEC failed to provide complete and accurate information and prepared a faulty and backdated justification and approval after it had already signed the lease. In August 2016, the General Services Administration and the SEC entered into an occupancy agreement to authorize GSA to secure a new 15-year lease.…”