Providing for Consideration of H.R. Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of and Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Denouncing the Biden Administration's Immigration Policies

Floor Speech

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Mr. ALFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share my support for the Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of 2023, otherwise known as the USE IT Act.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Federal employees to get back into the office. Use it or lose it.

The Government Accountability Office, GAO, found that, on average, 17 of the 24 CFO agency headquarters were at least 25 percent or less utilization in 2023.

There are two examples that I have direct oversight over through the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Agriculture. The Small Business Administration has 270,000 square feet. Only 9 percent of the people who work there show up for work. In the USDA's 2 million square feet of beautiful buildings just down the street here, only 11 percent of those buildings are occupied.

Are these agencies trying to hide the low numbers of workers actually showing up to work for the American people? The majority of workers aren't at their desks. They are not answering the phones. That is why our congressional offices are having to do their job.

Mr. Speaker, I don't mind helping our constituents. That is what we get paid to do. I have a card here. Most Members of Congress carry their schedules around in their pockets. We have 16 appointments today.

Mr. Speaker, you show up for work every day that you are supposed to be here. The ranking member shows up for work. He is not phoning it in. People in these agencies should not be phoning it in, either.

We need to look at our constituents as clients, the American taxpayer.

When I first came to D.C. 14 months ago, I wanted to visit the very agencies over which we had oversight, the Small Business Administration, the Pentagon, the USDA. We went to the Pentagon, but the other agencies would not let us in the door.

Why is that? A sitting Member of Congress could not get into the door of these agencies.

That is why we filed the Congressional Access to Bureaucratic Offices Act, which more or less complements this resolution. Sitting Members of Congress should be able to get into these agencies. They are not because they have been hiding the low numbers of people who are actually at their desks.

This bill would require the agencies to submit a report to Congress that includes the actual utilization rate.

Mr. Speaker, as a former news anchor for 35 years in America, I have breaking news for you. COVID is over. Get back to work for the American people. Start doing your job. Quit putting the pressure on constituents to have to call their Congress Member, their Congressman or Congresswoman, to get the job done that they should be doing in the first place.

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