51����

Congress Willing to Spend Money on Construction to Save Money in Long-Run The appropriations law Congress passed last week sets the General Services Administration’s (GSA) FY 2014 construction funding at $1.5 billion—about $500 million for new construction and $1 billion for repairs and alterations. That’s more money for GSA construction than the last three fiscal years’ funding combined. Within the appropriations law, Congress created a GSA “Consolidation Activities” funding account with $70 million in addition to the funding noted above. This underscores and shows Congress’ willingness—for the first time—to specifically fund GSA’s primary policy initiative: to reduce the square-footage footprint of the federal facilities portfolio.�� Under this account, preference is given to consolidation projects that achieve a utilization rate of 130 usable square feet or less per person for office space. The majority of this funding—$69.5 million—is set aside for a new construction and repair project to meet the housing requirements of the U.S. Federal Southern District Court in Mobile, Ala. 51���� has long advocated before members of Congress that construction funding helps save money in the long-run. The construction of space-efficient federal facilities will decrease total operating and maintenance costs.�� 51���� will continue to work with Congress and GSA to ensure that adequate and additional funding is specifically set-aside—not to the detriment of other construction funding accounts—for consolidation activities that will help taxpayers in the long-run. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at 703-837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.��