Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. PEREZ. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment with Representative Edwards for the USE IT Act which would incorporate our bipartisan bill, the FULL Act, to inform how Federal office leases are renewed and ensure unused government office space can be effectively repurposed.

Flexibility in where Federal employees work has allowed public servants to spend more time coaching their kids' Little League team and less time commuting in traffic. In addition, telework has been beneficial to rural communities like mine.

However, Federal policy needs to keep up so taxpayers aren't footing the bill for empty office space. We want to see our tax dollars going to fixing aging infrastructure in our public schools, not to landlords.

With more than half of all Federal leases set to expire in the next 5 years, our FULL Act would help the government better utilize space and cut down on expensive building leases and furniture.

Our amendment will require important reporting on space utilization, occupancy, and availability, as well as ensuring agencies have written procedures in place to return unused office space to the GSA.

Instead of wasting tax dollars on empty buildings and their landlords, we should be using them to replace our crumbling infrastructure.

I am grateful for Congressman Edwards' partnership on this bipartisan, commonsense effort to reduce government waste and be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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