Denham responds to $19.5 Million Sale of Georgetown Heating Plant

Press Release

U.S. Representative Jeff Denham today released the following statement regarding the General Services Administration's announcement of the sale of the West Heating Plant in Georgetown for $19.5 million:

"This is a huge win for taxpayers to end the wasteful mismanagement and underutilization of valuable federal assets," said Denham. "This is another step in the right direction to decreasing the federal footprint and reducing our debt while creating jobs. In order to make this process more cost-effective and transparent, we need to pass the Civilian Property Realignment Act to increase efficiency in our government. There are thousands of properties like this that could be sold immediately."

Last Congress, as Chairman of the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee, Rep. Denham and the Transportation Committee held hearings across the country in valuable but empty and underutilized federal buildings -- including the Georgetown West Heating Plant -- to focus on GSA's mismanagement of the federal government's real estate.

The sale of the vacant property is the latest example of Committee actions to pressure the agency into long-delayed positive movement on these assets.

In addition, Denham introduced H.R. 695, the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA), to streamline the process for disposing of unneeded and underutilized federal properties through a civilian BRAC-like process in order to shrink the government's footprint and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

"This is one of many new and innovative ways to save money for taxpayers," said Rep. Lou Barletta, chair of the Public Buildings Subcommittee for the 113th Congress. "Any time we can do something like this on behalf of the American people, we should jump at it."

Source