On the recordFebruary 27, 2014
I am pleased now to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), the chairman of the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee. Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Chair, I appreciate my colleagues for their leadership on this important legislation. I rise in support of it to bring some balance to an otherwise unaccountable bureaucratic agency, perhaps the most powerful agency in government with the least amount of public accountability. It has no accountability to the administration, very little to Congress, and even less to the American people. As a result, it should come as no surprise that this Bureau has operated with less transparency and less concern for fiscal discipline than even a very low bar and low standard we hold for our Federal tax dollars. Due to this lack of accountability, certain expenditures have been called into question; in fact, their building expenditures, which is a beautiful release of a $150 million plan to renovate a building that they are leasing. Now, it is a very rare thing and pretty silly in real estate to do an enormous upfit for a building that costs $153 million-- that is the appraised value--and to put $150 million at $461 a square foot into that building. It makes no sense unless you understand that these are your tax dollars at work to build luxury a couple of blocks from the White House.…
