There's no way to give GSA permission to spend this money without reducing how much other agencies get, because Congress' budgeting process ignores the notion that agencies can generate substantial revenue!
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(I was in senior leadership at GSA during the Biden Administration, so I've got some scars here.)
Anyway, when you hear that GSA should "simply" sell some buildings, please understand a) agencies are renting them b) GSA needs money to consolidate and c) congress won't let GSA spend its money.
Also requires funds to prepare a building to be sold or else knowingly accept less than market value. Also #2, tough time to be shedding real estate while be told to move employees back in person to occupy said real estate. The irony of telework being an easy and proven cost cutting measure.
I guess they will act with impunity until there is a showdown with courts, and then we will see what red lines are crossed and by whom. If Congress just says “whatever” and courts act slowly and/or Trump admin ignores court orders then??? For me, that’s the test of where we become lawless.
Not that other actions so far have been lawful. But it seems like they absolutely don't care about what passes legal muster or not, and so any statements about what can happen must be tempered by whether they choose to ignore courts and what happens next? That is where I get actually scared.
he's off his rocker enough, like the "ghost engineer" myth that "15% of engineers write no code", he thinks that he'll not just terminate 50% of all GSA spending, but 50% of all Federal headcount. unilaterally.
It’s especially dumb because GSA brings in a lot of money every year! There aren’t a lot of agencies for which that’s true, so in an addle-brained “government agencies should be profitable” mindset, it’s bizarre to go after GSA, specifically.
as it's been explained to me (imperfectly, if any errors, my fault rather than person conveying info), GSA controls the door locks and laptops and email, and thus if you want to implement a 50% reduction you need OPM to turn off the HR/finance systems and GSA to turn off everything else.
so this is nothing to do with profit or loss and everything to do with being able to seize the levers of power from agencies that would otherwise resist.
Not the laptops or emails, but it is the landlord. But it will take years to sell off buildings, assuming that the crimes don’t ramp up a lot more. That’s perhaps a bold assumption.
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Anyway, when you hear that GSA should "simply" sell some buildings, please understand a) agencies are renting them b) GSA needs money to consolidate and c) congress won't let GSA spend its money.
OK.
“I’m going to sell off half of all federal buildings and half of the federal fleet!”
…OK? Where will everybody work and how will they get around?
“I am out of my mind on ketamine!”
Ah. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/musk-federal-government.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uE4.X2HB.dkhmA7KHgjCa&smid=url-share