Washington, DC – The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a field hearing on Tuesday at a vacant, high-value federal building in Georgetown to focus on the continuing problem of how the General Services Administration’s (GSA) poor management of unused and underutilized federally owned buildings is bleeding the taxpayers.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) and Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-CA) will hold Tuesday’s hearing at the vacant Georgetown Heating Plant, which hasn’t operated for over a decade but has cost the taxpayers $3.5 million in operating expenses. This building is in the densely developed area of Georgetown adjacent to highly valued real estate. The property is another example of an underperforming building that, if sold or redeveloped, could provide a positive return to the taxpayers. While GSA is now finally in the process of selling the facility, it has been sitting vacant for 12 years.
Tuesday’s hearing will be the fourth in a series of field hearings in the nation’s capital focusing on the need to save taxpayers’ money by improving management of federally owned assets and property. The Committee has previously held two hearings at the partially vacant Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue and one hearing at the vacant Cotton Annex, one block from the National Mall.
The House has passed legislation introduced by Chairman Denham (H.R. 1734), to address this problem by implementing common-sense policies to help eliminate government waste and save billions of taxpayer dollars by selling or redeveloping high-value properties, consolidating federal space, maximizing the utilization rates of space, and streamlining the disposal of unneeded assets.
Tuesday’s hearing will be located at the Georgetown Heating Plant in Washington, DC and is open to press and public.
More information on Tuesday’s hearing can be found here.
WHAT: Hearing of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-FL), Chairman, “Sitting on Our Assets: The Georgetown Heating Plant”
WHEN: 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 19, 2011
WHERE: Georgetown Heating Plant
1051 29th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20007
WITNESS:
• Mr. Flavio Peres, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Real Property Utilization and Disposal, U.S. General Services Administration
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