The Public Buildings Service (PBS) is the largest public real estate organization in the United States, under whose aegis more than 1.2 million federal employees are provided with workspaces. The agency, a branch of the federal…
Category: Agencies
A New GAO Report Questions GSA Savings Claims
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leases private property at a cost of billions of dollars—$5.7 billion annually, to be precise, spread out over more than 8,000 leases. Every year, the agency claims, it saves taxpayers…
GAO Finds Fault with GSA’s Delegated Leasing
The federal entity principally charged with leasing property for the use of government agencies is the U.S. General Services Administration. In keeping with decentralization efforts in many areas of government, however, GSA long ago created a…
Space Force Takes Flight
On February 19, President Donald J. Trump signed an order directing the Pentagon to develop plans to establish a U.S. Space Force, with its mandate to “marshal its space resources to deter and counter threats in…
Agency Profile: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, popularly known as BuRec, is not much heard of east of the Hundredth Meridian, but in the 16 mainland states to the west it plays a central role in managing water…
Agency Profile: The US Army Futures Command
If knowledge is power, as the English scientist and politician Sir Francis Bacon is credited with saying, then knowing how and when to use force can be thought of as a kind of superpower. It requires…
“Reduce the Footprint” Faces Public and Political Headwinds for the Social Security Administration
With over 1,000 leased facilities, often in single-tenant buildings, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is a staple of many federal investor portfolios. Like other federal agencies, however, SSA has been dutifully implementing the “Reduce the Footprint”…
Social Security’s Shrinking Footprint
The Social Security Administration is shrinking—though, as more and more baby boomers arrive at the age of SSA entitlements, the demands on it are growing. A report issued late in August by the Government Accountability Office…
VA and the Problem of Old Properties
A century and a half ago, after the Civil War had ended, the federal government began an ambitious program of building national hospitals for wounded veterans—a few at first, and then, as those veterans became elderly,…
Aligning Facilities and Needs at the VA
The federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) owns or operates 168 medical centers and 1,053 outpatient facilities that serve a population of 8.9 million veterans each year, ranking it among the largest healthcare providers in the…