Press Releases

Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee Chairman Lou Barletta (R-PA) will lead a Subcommittee roundtable next week on opportunities for saving taxpayers money by reducing costs and space of federal office leases in the Washington, DC metro area.

In the National Capital Region alone, the General Services Administration (GSA) – the federal government’s landlord – leases 56 million rentable square feet.  The leases for an unusually large amount of that space – 32 million square feet – will expire over the next five years.  The Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) occupy 44% of the total of square footage of expiring leases.  Subcommittee Members will hear from participants representing GSA, DOJ, DHS, and HHS, in addition to representatives of the commercial real estate industry. 

Last Congress, through efforts to get GSA’s tenant agencies to improve their space utilization, the Committee authorized leases that will result in over $2 billion in savings to the taxpayer over the terms of those leases.

Next week’s Subcommittee roundtable, entitled “Opportunities for Taxpayer Savings:  Federally Leased Office Space in the National Capital Region,” is open to the public, and scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 in Room 2253 of the Rayburn House Office Building.                    

Additional background information about next week’s roundtable can be found here.

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