On the recordFebruary 7, 2011
Mr. President, the Federal Government has $950 billion worth of property it is not using right now. We are spending $9 billion a year taking care of it, and we have a budget gimmick that says an agency that needs a new building, because we are going to account for the cost of that building in the year in which they buy it and charge it all to the agency--what are we doing? We are leasing buildings. I guarantee we could own them much more cheaply than we could lease them. What we should be doing is changing that and getting rid of the excess property, lowering our cost to maintain it--there is 9 out of the 1,500 we have to do, right there, if we would just do that--and then change the way we purchase buildings for the Federal Government so the agency can own it instead of leasing it because it costs, over the life of the building, about twice the lease.
