"Yet we waste billions of dollars each year maintaining properties we no longer need."
"The Federal Government currently maintains 14,000 buildings and structures deemed excess and over 76,000 properties identified as underutilized."
"In fiscal year 2009, these underutilized buildings cost us $1.7 billion to operate."
"Without better, more transparent data, we are flying blind."
"I do not believe there should be any pride of ownership here."
"I fear that this hearing is focused on issues which distract from the obvious task at hand."
"We are trying to balance a known entity, the greatest economic downturn since the Depression caused by this lack of regulation."
"We need to focus on policies that create jobs and promote economic growth."
"I do think we have a revenue problem, and the revenue problem at the local level was because of the economic downturn."
"States like Illinois need fiscal reform. We need to streamline, consolidate, and reinvent government not because it is unimportant, but because its mission is so important; it is where the wheels hit ..."
"Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path."
"The CBO projects that by 2030, the federal government will be spending 30 percent of GDP but collecting only 20 percent in tax revenue."