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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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Did President Trump affect the GSA’s decision on FBI’s HQ?IG: GSA Admin Emily Murphy’s testimony “incomplete”An audit examining the General Services Administration’s recent abandonment of its longtime search for a new FBI headquarters location is raising questions about how much President Trump was involved in the decision. GSA’s Inspector General Carol F. Ochoa, in the audit released on Aug. 27, also is suggesting that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy may have misled Congress about Trump’s involvement. “We found that Murphy’s answers to the questions about White House involvement were incomplete and may have left the misleading impression that she had no discussions with the President or senior White House officials in the decision-making process about the project,” the inspector general concluded in her report. The IG also alleges that GSA underestimated the costs of the new demolish-and-rebuild option for the FBI at its current location, in comparison to the former plan to relocate. “Our review found that GSA did not include all of the costs in its Revised FBI Headquarters Plan, and that the J. Edgar Hoover demolish and rebuild plan would cost more than the cancelled J. Edgar Hoover exchange.” The GSA and Murphy are strongly disputing the allegations in the IG’s report. Murphy has retained a private attorney who has provided statements to the press. Regarding Murphy’s testimony to Congress, her attorney, Brian Miller, a former GSA IG, said that “what the administrator did was answer truthfully the question she was asked. It’s not the witness' job to answer follow-ups to questions that the witness wasn’t asked,” Miller told the Washington Post. The GSA also claimed the IG audit was “improper” because it was requested by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-VA, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight & Government Reform government operations subcommittee. As a lawmaker from Virginia, his district has an interest in serving as an FBI headquarters location. But the IG said that it was not improper and it routinely investigates matters in which lawmakers may have an interest in their districts. The approximately $3.6 billion FBI headquarters project is a significant one for small business contractors in the DC area. The IG’s report suggests that White House involvement has been greater than previously known. The FBI building is located across Pennsylvania Avenue a block away from the Trump International Hotel. FBI building The FBI has been based in the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC since 1974. The GSA had been planning to construct a larger, more secure campus for the FBI since 2005. Three finalist locations had been identified. As part of the deal, there was to be an exchange: GSA would give title to the Pennsylvania Avenue property to the chosen developer, while the developer would provide land and construction services for the new building. In February 2018, GSA abruptly announced a new plan to demolish the existing building and to construct a new FBI headquarters in the same location. It was a sharp departure from GSA’s previous plan. Murphy’s testimony Murphy, who was confirmed as GSA administrator in December 2017, had meetings about the FBI building with President Trump, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and budget director Mick Mulvaney on Jan. 24, the IG reported. On April 17, Murphy testified at the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing. She was questioned about her discussions with Trump and White House officials regarding the FBI project. Following two previous questions on the subject, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-IL, asked Murphy: “But again, to your knowledge, was the President or anyone at the White House involved in those discussions either with your predecessors or people you’re working with now or yourself? Murphy responded: “Sir, to my knowledge, the direction that we got came from the FBI. It was the FBI that directed GSA as to what its requirements would be. We obviously did, given that it is a substantial budget request, we coordinated that request with OMB to provide for funding, but the requirements were generated by the FBI.”
More information:
IG report: https://bit.ly/2PFS8mp
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