Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. 6276.

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Mr. PERRY. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, H.R. 6276, the USE IT Act of 2023, implements commonsense and reasonable space occupancy standards to get Federal employees back into the office or the agency will have to lose that unnecessary, unneeded, unused space.

A recent Government Accountability Office review of how agencies were actually using their headquarters space here in Washington, D.C., found that 17 of the 24 agencies GAO reviewed used 25 percent or less of their space--17 of the 24, 25 percent or less of their space.

One agency even admitted that if 100 percent of their employees showed up, they would still only use 67 percent of their own building.

Even more troubling is some agencies were using only 9 percent. They can't even make double digits of their space. To be clear, we are not just paying for space to sit empty. Throughout the whole time, we are paying for utilities and services such as heating, cooling, lighting, regular power, maintenance, security for the entire space that no one is in.

Empty Federal buildings are not only a drain to the Federal taxpayer, they also don't produce investments needed for local economies because nobody is in the building. There is nobody there to go out to lunch.

The bottom line is agencies should bring Federal workers back to the office. The reality is underutilized space has been a chronic problem in Federal real estate and is one reason Federal property has been on the GAO's high-risk list since 2003. This problem was identified 20 years ago, and it is still in existence today.

In order to address the issue, H.R. 6276 would use similar metrics to those used by the GAO and require Federal agencies to report on their actual utilization rates, set a target utilization of not less than 60 percent, and require the General Services Administration to report to Congress if any agency fails to meet that standard.

Agencies will be given time to meet the 60 percent utilization standard, but if they fail to do so, they would have to lose or give up their excess space.

Ultimately, the results of H.R. 6276 will benefit not just the Federal taxpayer, but also allow unused Federal buildings to be put to better use for the local communities.

Madam Chair, I urge support of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. PERRY. Madam Chair, to my good friend, the ranking member of the full committee, the current administration doesn't even count every single employee in the Federal system. This bill, as he knows, does not affect flex schedules or telework schedules. It has nothing to do with that. We can, in this case, have our cake and eat it, too.

We can have this bill. We can get our occupancy rate up to 60 percent. We can pass the bipartisan amendment that myself and Representative Auchincloss had worked together on and is in order. We can try and right-size the people that actually show up to work while acknowledging in the Federal system that not everybody has to be in the office.

Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), my good friend.

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Mr. PERRY. Madam Chair, historically, for 20 years anyhow, while this problem has been identified, these issues have historically been bipartisan. In fact, it was former President Obama who advocated agencies to freeze and then reduce their space footprint, recognizing that agencies had far more space than they needed.

To the gentleman who just spoke, GSA actually wants to do it. They want to reduce the space, but the agencies won't allow it. Why would they? They get so much space, and they don't have to deal with managing it or not. They just get the space, and they can continue on their other work with as much space as they need, sometimes 3,000 square feet per employee.

A lot of people in America would like to have a house that is 3,000 square feet for their whole family. If they were watching today and found out that the Federal Government was paying for that, that their taxes were paying for that when they couldn't afford it themselves, they would be furious.

The Obama administration set a standard that agencies had to account for things like teleworking, actual space usage, and planning for the space. For example, in an agency that may have 1,000 people assigned to a building, only a portion of those people would be counted when it came to desks and space. It puts into consideration things like teleworking. The Obama administration even proposed selling the Department of Labor building based on this type of space utilization and counting.

More recently, I know that the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia has previously proposed legislation to move and sell the Department of Energy, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that Republicans just want to kick Federal employees out of their buildings. We don't. We would actually prefer that they come back to work.

Additionally, if they come back to work, I think it is very reasonable for us to say that we want the building to be 60 percent occupied. Sixty percent is, to me, a pretty good compromise with my friends on the other side of the aisle who are saying we just want to sell buildings and kick Federal employees out of their buildings.

We don't. We want them to come to work, but we want them to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money and to use the space efficiently. When they don't need it, like everybody else would do, give up that space to be utilized either by other agencies in the Federal Government or by the political subdivision. Some town or city where that building is located should have the advantage to use that space so that they can increase their tax rolls, so that they can help their vendors out on the streets, and so that they can help their community.

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Mr. PERRY.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I do want to respond to my good friend from Washington.

I didn't mean to mischaracterize his assessment or his comments. However, the speaker before the gentleman from Washington did essentially make those claims, and so I was answering that.

While I am here, I want to characterize what the public is seeing if they are reading The Washington Times. Here is an article from Wednesday, December 6, 2023, ``Idea to fill empty Federal buildings with illegal immigrants,'' where DHS headquarters is 69 percent unused and Social Security offices are 93 percent vacant.

No wonder offices like mine deal with so many constituent calls when they can't get answers from the Social Security Administration.

We would like those folks to come back to work, but if they are not going to come back to work, could we stop having everybody, including Social Security recipients, pay for the empty building?

Here is another one from The Washington Times, dated Thursday, September 21, 2023: ``Telework's empty buildings opens the door for Legionnaires' disease.''

Well, isn't that wonderful? Won't that be great when the source of a new outbreak of Legionnaires' disease comes from a vacant Federal building that we are paying for?

Here is another one, ``IG to investigate Federal offices left vacant by telework policies,'' from The Washington Times, and the date of this is Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

Finally, ``Ghost towns: Federal office buildings are 80 percent vacant, government audit finds.'' This article is from The Washington Times, dated Thursday, October 26, 2023.

We have an opportunity here that shouldn't be partisan and should be pretty simple. All we are saying is: Federal agencies, can you come back to work at least 60 percent? Is that too much? It is 10 percent above 50 percent, which would be half empty. We find that very objectionable, but at least 60 percent should be something we agree on.

Mr. Chair, I include all the articles that I discussed previously in the Record. [From the Washington Times, Dec. 6, 2023] Idea To Fill Empty Federal Buildings With Illegal Immigrants Solves Two Problems for Biden Admin DHS HQ is 69 percent unused, Social Security offices 93 percent vacant (By Stephen Dinan)

The Biden administration is desperate to find shelter for all the illegal immigrants caught and released into the U.S.

Perhaps they could stay in federal office buildings.

The Department of Homeland Security's palatial headquarters in Washington's southeast quadrant sits nearly 70 percent vacant, according to data released this week by Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose mission is to put Americans into homes, is even worse. Its headquarters is 93 percent vacant. So is the Social Security Administration's main building outside Baltimore.

The Office of Personnel Management, the government's human resources agency, is a ghost town with 88 percent of its space unoccupied. The General Services Administration, the government's chief landlord agency, can't fill its own headquarters, with an 89 percent vacancy rate.

Across two dozen departments and agencies, not a single one was at 50 percent capacity in the first three months of this year, according to Ms. Ernst's figures.

``While it's not the night before Christmas yet, there's not a creature stirring, not even a mouse, in the halls across this city,'' Ms. Ernst said in releasing the occupancy figures.

She said the Biden administration gave the numbers to her but didn't want them released publicly. She defied that demand, saying the public needs to know how bad things have become in the federal workforce.

``COVID's been over for years. Where are the workers?'' she said.

The Washington Times reached out to the worst-performing agencies to ask about the vacancies and their plans to rectify matters.

None of the agencies provided a comment, though in response to federal officials, HUD and the Small Business Administration said their spaces were undergoing renovations during the test period, which contributed to a decrease in attendance.

The GSA controls more than 90 million square feet of office space in the Washington region alone, and the government holds about 511 million square feet nationally. GSA figures on 150 to 180 square feet of usable space per employee.

The 24 headquarters buildings for which Ms. Ernst released data were operating at about 20 percent of full use.

Occupancy is based on a building's capacity and the amount of use of its space. The data was based on average attendance during sample days in a three-month period from January through March and was derived from sign-ins, logins and badge swipes.

While offices sit empty, many American communities are overwhelmed by the surge of illegal immigrants whom the Biden administration has caught and released.

Ms. Ernst suggested a meeting of the minds.

``So-called sanctuary cities have run out of space to shelter the influx of immigrants that the Biden administration is allowing to enter the country illegally. With two-thirds of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters going unused, maybe the agency causing the problem can solve it by opening their doors,'' she told The Times.

Homeland Security, which has a use rate of 31 percent, did not respond to a request for comment on the idea.

Exact numbers are a closely held secret, but outside estimates say Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has paroled 2 million illegal immigrants into the U.S., in addition to others caught and released or who sneaked in altogether.

The administration has moved to stick thousands of them at a National Park Service property in New York. It signed a lease with the city for the Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

That location lacks many amenities, and the tent city erected to house the migrants sits in a flood plain, critics charged.

House Republicans, joined by a smattering of Democrats, voted last week to cancel the lease and to prevent migrants from being placed on other property held by federal land management agencies. That legislation, which is unlikely to make it through the Democratic-controlled Senate, does not appear to block migrants from being placed in buildings run by non-land-management agencies.

Meanwhile, vacancy at federal buildings is an increasingly touchy issue for the Biden administration, which has declared the pandemic emergency over and ordered employees back to work in person but has been met with resistance by those workers.

The comptroller general, in a report earlier this year, prodded agencies about the matter.

They offered a host of excuses for why they weren't filling space, including preparing for a possible surge of returning employees.

Some excuses seemed more territorial.

The audit said some agencies seemed to worry that giving up their buildings or sharing space with others would make them seem less powerful than other agencies.

Even within departments and agencies, divisions were reluctant to share space such as conference rooms, the Government Accountability Office said. ____ [From the Washington Times, Sept. 21, 2023] Telework's Empty Buildings Open the Door for Legionnaires' Disease (By Stephen Dinan)

The water supply in at least six federal government buildings is contaminated with the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease, and the problem may be even more widespread, according to the inspector general who oversees U.S. properties.

One of the buildings is a work site for thousands of employees, one is a post office in Chicago and one houses a day care center.

Investigators said one culprit is pandemic teleworking, which has left buildings operating at less than capacity. Fewer people means less water is flushed through the pipes, creating a stagnant environment where Legionella pneumophila can proliferate. ____ [From the Washington Times, Oct. 18, 2023] IG To Investigate Federal Offices Left Vacant by Telework Policies (By Stephen Dinan)

A federal inspector general has opened an investigation into telework policies that have turned some government offices into ghost towns, risking the spread of disease and raising questions about how agencies deliver services.

The inspector general for the General Services Administration, which acts as the chief landlord for civilian executive branch agencies, confirmed the work in a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, who says the government has not fully grappled with a host of questions about the barren buildings.

``My office shares your concerns about the effect of telework on GSA's ability to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently,'' acting Inspector General Robert Erickson told Ms. Ernst in a letter, which The Washington Times obtained. ``My office plans to continue to devote attention to GSA's space utilization in our future oversight efforts.'' ____ [From the Washington Times, Oct. 26, 2023] Ghost Towns: Federal Office Buildings are 80% Vacant, Government Audit Finds (By Stephen Dinan)

The Agriculture Department is headquartered at the gateway between Washington and Virginia in a building rich with history--but on any given day, roughly 90 percent of it sits empty.

That's not an anomaly.

The Government Accountability Office surveyed two dozen federal agencies and found they averaged a roughly 80 percent vacancy rate during the study period earlier this year.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, Federal real property has remained on the GAO's high-risk list for more than 20 years. The Government Accountability Office has said this is a high risk for the last 20 years, and we are on the precipice. We are standing on the edge of providing a solution to the excess space that exists that we keep paying for.

At the same time, our debt has gone to $34 trillion. By May, it will be $35 trillion. We are not going to save trillions here, but we can save billions here. If you start adding up billions, maybe you will finally get to trillions. However, we are not saving anything right now, and we are not going to save any of this if we don't pass this bill.

This is our opportunity, Mr. Chair, to finally fix this problem, a problem that I will note has historically found bipartisan support to address the issue. Even on this occasion, when the bill was lacking, we had a hearing. We had a markup on it.

Friends on the other side of the aisle said: Would you listen to a way where potentially we could improve it?

Of course, we did, and we worked together. You are going to have an opportunity to vote on that amendment shortly.

The USE IT Act of 2023 is reasonable. It is commonsense legislation that simply says that if the Federal employees don't come back into the office, the taxpayer is not going to have to pay for the empty space.

We don't have any extra money in this town, Mr. Chair. Nobody has any extra money. Right here, we have identified it. This is where some of it is going unnecessarily. We can consolidate. We can sell things off.

Some of these agencies will probably get a new building, just at the right size, where their workers would still have flex time, would still telework where appropriate, and where constituents--our bosses, the American people--could access the services that they pay for and deserve to get because they do pay for them.

Mr. Chair, I urge support of this soon-to-be bipartisan bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to offer this bipartisan amendment to H.R. 6276 with the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Auchincloss). This amendment makes two clarifying changes to the bill, ensuring that the legislation collects occupancy data in a way that better encompasses all Federal workers, wherever they are working, and protects the privacy of those workers.

This amendment updates the definition of ``occupancy'' in the bill from the total number of employees performing duties in person over a 5-day workweek to the number of employees doing so over a 40-hour workweek, ensuring that occupancy calculations can more comprehensively account for all employees.

Now, the issue came up during discussion in regular order in the committee. Mr. Auchincloss had some issues with the bill, and rightly so. He came to me, and he said: Can we work on this? I said: Sure, I think we can because we are all interested in making things better, no matter where the ideas come from.

Additionally, this amendment requires that the sensors used to collect occupancy data within this bill are designed to protect the personally identifiable information of the building's occupants, ensuring that these new requirements will not impinge and impose on Federal employee privacy.

It has been great to work with the gentleman. We all want to improve things. We all think we have the best ideas, but sometimes we don't, and when somebody else does, you have just got to say, well, look, can we get it done together? If that brings us together, that is a win for the American people and, quite honestly, a win for this Congress if we can work on the amendment, get it passed and also the bill.

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, again, trying to alleviate the fact that a vast majority of the buildings are vastly understaffed, yet 100 percent of them are paid for, that is what we are trying to do here. It has been a 20-year-long problem--20 years long. The Obama administration recognized it and tried to do something about it. Of course, GSA wants to do something about it. Again, the tenants, the occupants of the buildings, the agencies have no incentive to reduce their space. They would be happy to have all the space and have nobody in it except when they feel like showing up as long as the taxpayer is willing to pay for an empty building, well heated, well cared for, well maintained, just in case they might use it.

Now, we have told the Rules Committee that we want to see all the amendments that are worthy to be listened to be debated and come to the floor for a vote because we think that improving ideas, no matter where they come from, is the greatest thing for this institution and for this effort.

I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment that I worked on with my good friend, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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