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Tim Burchett Asks How Much The Government Could Save By 'Allowing Unneeded Leases To Expire'
Forbes Breaking News
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4/23/2025
At a House DOGE Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) spoke about office space leased by the federal government.
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00:00
The gentleman yields. I now recognize Mr. Burchett from Tennessee.
00:05
Thank you, Chair Lady. Thank you for indulgence in allowing me to be on this committee.
00:09
I come in here usually ticked off and I leave in worse condition, so thank you for that.
00:16
If I ever have a counselor, I'm going to send you the bill.
00:21
Mr. Hart, do any members of Congress, their spouses, or their immediate family
00:27
have any property ownership rights to this property or any federal land?
00:34
Congressman, I don't know the answer to that question off the top of my head.
00:37
Okay, do spouses of members of Congress own real property and lease it to the federal government?
00:42
And how would we find that out? Because I think I know what you're going to say.
00:46
I believe the answer to that question is yes.
00:49
You do?
00:50
I do believe that.
00:52
Is there any way we could verify that information?
00:54
Well, you go to USA Spending and search, open the books, our website,
00:59
and you can look up members' names, you can look up any person's name,
01:03
and find that information.
01:05
All right. I suspect that's being done as I speak.
01:09
Mr. Moroney, how much underutilized space does the federal government have?
01:15
Can't say there's not good data. We just don't have data.
01:18
It's going to come this summer. Congress has now required it.
01:20
But prior to this, once you get outside of headquarters, there wasn't measurement of how much the...
01:25
I hate these studies.
01:26
Every day we vote on a new study, and I suspect there's some warehouse like in Raiders of the Lost Ark at the end
01:31
where they're putting this, and our top people are looking at it,
01:34
and there's these studies that are just on these shelves in these vast, vast warehouses.
01:39
Would you agree with that assumption?
01:40
There are a lot of studies.
01:42
All right.
01:43
Remember your... whatever.
01:44
All right.
01:45
How much would the federal government save by allowing unneeded leases to expire?
01:51
Federal government sends about $6 billion on leased office space,
01:55
so depending on how many you let expire, you get substantial savings.
02:00
As I said up here, people chastised the thought of making a profit.
02:07
To me, that's not an evil thing.
02:09
That allows for more people to be employed.
02:11
It seems that we have forgotten exactly who we work for,
02:17
and it's the people back home who are struggling.
02:19
When I was mayor of Knox County, one of the first things I did was I said,
02:23
get me a list of all the property we own in Knox County.
02:28
And it was amazing to me.
02:31
I mean, we had property in neighborhoods.
02:34
We had property...
02:34
Some of it was obviously undevelopable.
02:37
Someone was on the corner of a small airport.
02:39
But it was all over.
02:42
We had something listed as a park, and it was nothing further from a park.
02:47
And we ended up selling a lot of this property, and we paid cash for schools,
02:52
crazy things like that.
02:53
We didn't stay in debt.
02:55
And to me, that just seems like the model that the federal government should adopt.
03:00
We should have a listing of the property,
03:02
and the people ought to be able to review that and make better assumptions.
03:06
Because I assume, I think they're a lot more smarter than we give them credit for.
03:11
And I suspect that's part of the problem.
03:13
They don't want to let them look behind the curtain, so to speak.
03:19
Would you agree with that?
03:20
It is important to have that kind of data.
03:22
There is an inventory that's available online,
03:25
but there are significant issues with this reliability.
03:29
Mr. Hart, would you care to address that?
03:32
We would like to enhance the transparency of all of that data.
03:35
I think it's one of the most important assets that taxpayers should be able to review the cost
03:40
so that they can make good decisions.
03:41
And again, the purpose of transparency is to empower taxpayers.
03:45
Transparency is not a two-way street.
03:48
The government does not have the right to inspect our checkbook.
03:50
Taxpayers do have the right to inspect the government's checkbook
03:53
because it's their money.
03:56
Mr. Kendall, would you care to offer your...
03:59
I'm all in favor of transparency.
04:02
No objection.
04:03
It seems our friends in the media always strive for that.
04:08
And we get pretty gutless up here.
04:13
So I would hope in the future we would address that.
04:16
I'll yield my 49 seconds back to you, Chair Lady.
04:19
Thank you for your indulgence, ma'am.
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