OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Modifying Purchase Treatment of Certain Bargain-Price Options

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 3, 2021
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. GUEST. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 2220, which would allow the General Services Administration, or GSA, to enter into bargain-price purchasing agreements in situations where the buying of Federal property is the cheaper alternative to a long-term lease.

Designed as a measure to bring free-market efficiency into Federal real estate, H.R. 2220 would save taxpayers from costly, long-term lease contracts where bargain purchases better suit the situation.

For example, the Tacoma Union Station purchase approved by the Transportation Committee earlier this year shows the benefits of allowing these bargain-price purchases. Prior to a scoring rule change, the GSA negotiated a $1 purchase price of the facility in order to undertake necessary seismic and building system modernizations.

By purchasing the property, the GSA will be making the needed investments to modernize the facility for Federal use while realizing a lease cost avoidance of approximately $6.4 million and protecting American taxpayer dollars.

This legislation provides a commonsense correction that will continue this committee's work in reducing the taxpayers' burden in Federal real estate.

I appreciate the chair and ranking member of the committee for bringing this legislation to the floor and my colleague and friend from Indiana, Congressman Greg Pence, and his office's work on this issue in the previous Congress.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GUEST. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence).

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Mr. GUEST. Madam Speaker, in closing, H.R. 2220 ensures that the GSA is able to negotiate discounted purchase options and leases to save potentially billions in taxpayer dollars.

I urge support of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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