GSA FY 2014 Construction Funding For Space Consolidation Efforts

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. AGC 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.  AGC 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.