Souder Continues Fight for Answers Re: Social Security Office
Letter
Souder Continues Fight for Answers Re: Social Security Office
U.S. Rep. Mark Souder sent the following letter today to U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) chief Lurita Doan regarding the new location of Fort Wayne's Social Security office.
June 14, 2007
The Honorable Lurita Doan
Administrator
U.S. General Services Administration
1800 F Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20405
Dear Administrator Doan:
Thank you for your commitment at yesterday's Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing to work with my staff on an issue of great importance to seniors and disabled people in Fort Wayne.
As you know, the Fort Wayne office of the Social Security Administration (SSA) is scheduled to move to a new location (on Lincolnway Court near Bluffton Road) this summer. As the federal government's principal real estate agency, GSA was responsible for leasing the new facility. Despite the fact that the GSA's Solicitation for Offers (GS-05B-17032, p. 6 of 45) stated "Adequate public transportation is required to the proposed location in those cities or towns that have a public transportation system [my emphasis]," the new office is not located on an existing public transit route.
If the new SSA office remains distant (i.e., 0.8 miles) from the current bus route, seniors and disabled Hoosiers who rely on public transportation and need to visit the SSA office would endure a significant hardship. The alternative, which would involve Fort Wayne's Citilink bus service adding public transit to service the new SSA site, represents a costly burden (i.e., an estimated $1.2 million over the life of the lease) to Hoosier taxpayers.
I would like you to conduct an investigation of this matter, including why on June 19, 2002, GSA changed the boundaries in the presolicitation notice (GS-05B-17032) to exclude anything north of Main Street or east of Lafayette Street. In addition, I would like to know what financial assistance GSA is going to provide to cover the increased costs that have been transferred to the City of Fort Wayne because the new site is not accessible via public transit. Finally, you should know that at a May 10, 2007, meeting with GSA and SSA officials, my district director requested a complete copy of the winning bid. Despite repeated requests over the last month, GSA has not even been able to send us a copy of the bid.
I thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, and I look forward to your response. Please contact Derek Pillie of my staff for more information.
Sincerely,
Mark Souder
Member of Congress
cc: Kevin Messner, Associate Administrator, Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, GSA
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