Public Buildings

Budget scorekeeping rules continue to drive the General Services Administration (GSA) toward short-term leases even when ownership clearly offers superior short-term and long-term cost advantages. GAO testified that resolution of this problem would entail hard choices among competing priorities for limited federal dollars. As long as total discretionary spending is controlled by tight caps, greater spending on public buildings will be accompanied by cuts in other areas of the budget. Whether to boost funding for public buildings at the expense of other programs is a decision Congress will have to make. Current scoring rules require GSA to fully justify full funding purchase options--a difficult argument to make in the current budgetary environment, but one required of all spending programs today.