Gsa

By now you've likely heard about the infamous Las Vegas convention bash during which federal civil servants at the General Services Administration indulged in various frivolities to the tune of $823,000 of your money. That conference featured, among other things, a hired professional clown -- which is like Picasso hiring some guy from out of the Yellow Pages to paint a mural. As with political sex scandals, nothing vaults a fiscal scandal into the headlines faster than photographic or video evidence.

General Services Administration officials said Wednesday they had received nearly three dozen responses to a request for ideas about a new FBI headquarters, a potentially lucrative development that Maryland leaders hope to land in Prince George's County. State and local officials have been working behind the scenes for months to lure the FBI to Maryland if the agency leaves its 38-year-old headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, in downtown Washington. The state is competing with Virginia and Washington for the roughly 11,000 jobs associated with the facility.

The press is having a field day with the General Services Administration "team building" outing in Las Vegas on the taxpayers' dime. However, every day chartered jets land there and other exotic destinations, loaded with employees of corporations doing the same kind of activities and writing it off as a "business expense. " Doctors attend "seminars" at drug company venues with sunny beaches, gambling or golf, all listed as "business expense. " As we all know "business expenses" are deductions from income that means the tax payers are actually paying for the same kind of excess!

Federal workers aren't the only ones anxious about looming budget cuts. Federal contractors - plentiful in Maryland - have a lot at stake, too. Mark Amtower, who helps companies market products and services to the federal government, thinks there's plenty of reason to worry. The most obvious challenge on the horizon is sequestration - the automatic cuts of $109 billion annually that are due to start in January if Congress cannot agree on deficit reduction. But Amtower sees other changes as well that he says make it more difficult for small companies selling, or hoping to sell, to Uncle Sam. He started his firm, Amtower & Co., in 1985 and runs it from his Highland home with his wife, Mary Ellen.

WASHINGTON -- Eager to avoid paralyzing labor disputes, federal employee union leaders touted their first "new partnership" with at least one agency's top brass.The General Services Administration and the three largest federal employee unions signed a resolution yesterday to begin regular dialogues with representatives of labor and agency managers.GSA Administrator Roger Johnson, who left the private sector in July to join the government, told the labor leaders that the federal workplace needs to imitate the corporate environment.

WASHINGTON -- A House panel approved yesterday a General Services Administration study of federal facilities and space needs in the Baltimore region.The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin's request that the GSA perform its first appraisal of federal facilities in the region in eight years.The GSA will assess the size of the agencies in the region, whether they are growing and the cost of consolidating several bTC in one building or keeping them in their current quarters, said GSA Regional Administrator Paul Chistolini.

WASHINGTON - The General Services Administration has found that departing members of the Clinton administration did not vandalize the White House during the presidential transition, as unnamed aides to President Bush and other critics had insisted. Responding to a request from Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican who asked for an investigation, the GSA found that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. "The condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy," according to a GSA statement.

The U.S. General Services Administration has put the Point No Point Lighthouse up for sale, giving any average citizen with at least a few thousand dollars the chance to own a piece of Chesapeake Bay history. The century-old lighthouse in Southern Maryland is about five nautical miles from Point Lookout and 15 nautical miles south of Solomons Island. The structure is 30 feet around and about 52 feet high, with the keeper's quarters, fuel storage area and lantern room all in one place.

The U.S. General Services Administration is looking to move a major warehouse facility to Anne Arundel County from Northern Virginia, in what could become a $5 million lease for the winning developer.The GSA wants to move a Federal Supply Service warehouse from Franconia, Va., in Fairfax County. The service is responsible for the nuts and bolts of government -- "chairs, paintings, pens, paper clips -- you name it," GSA spokesman John Thompson said.Glamorous it's not, but it is a fairly big deal at a time when big deals are hard for developers to find.

Baltimore County officials turned up the heat on the U.S. General Services Administration yesterday, announcing a coalition that will lobby the GSA to keep the Health Care Financing Administration and its 3,000 jobs in Woodlawn.County Executive Roger B. Hayden, Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, R-Md.-2d., and leaders of business groups and the union representing HCFA workers said they are trying to keep the HCFA from bowing to political pressure from city officials and moving into the city.They say officials including Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md.

It has been a tough news cycle for taxpayers. Not only did we get a real-time look on April 17 at what we donate to the government, we also are getting a harrowing look at how the government spends it. The General Services Administration, often referred to as the government's personal shopper, blew $822,000 flying 300 of its employees to Las Vegas for a four-day bonding experience that included a clown, a mind-reader and $7,000 worth of...

The press is having a field day with the General Services Administration "team building" outing in Las Vegas on the taxpayers' dime. However, every day chartered jets land there and other exotic destinations, loaded with employees of corporations doing the same kind of activities and writing it off as a "business expense. " Doctors attend "seminars" at drug company venues with sunny beaches, gambling or golf, all listed as "business expense. " As we all know "business expenses" are deductions from income that means the tax payers are actually paying for the same kind of excess!

By now you've likely heard about the infamous Las Vegas convention bash during which federal civil servants at the General Services Administration indulged in various frivolities to the tune of $823,000 of your money. That conference featured, among other things, a hired professional clown -- which is like Picasso hiring some guy from out of the Yellow Pages to paint a mural. As with political sex scandals, nothing vaults a fiscal scandal into the headlines faster than photographic or video evidence.

There is much excitement in the Frederick County Office of Economic Development these days. Late last month, the federal government purchased vacant land in an industrial park in Urbana on which it will relocate and upgrade the Social Security Administration's data center, currently housed in Woodlawn. The $500 million project is quite a coup for Urbana, a community of fewer than 10,000 people in the midst of rolling farmland off Interstate 270. The relocated data center will not only bring 200 jobs but is expected to generate hundreds more in the private sector.

The U.S. General Services Administration has put the Point No Point Lighthouse up for sale, giving any average citizen with at least a few thousand dollars the chance to own a piece of Chesapeake Bay history. The century-old lighthouse in Southern Maryland is about five nautical miles from Point Lookout and 15 nautical miles south of Solomons Island. The structure is 30 feet around and about 52 feet high, with the keeper's quarters, fuel storage area and lantern room all in one place.

The General Services Administration announced this week that it is offering 700 federal workers buyouts in the hope that almost 400 of them will accept. The reason: Two of GSA's divisions, which rely heavily on fees for services provided to other agencies, are operating in the red. Four years ago, this corporate-style downsizing would have been unheard of in federal circles, but according to a recent Government Accountability Office report, it is becoming more common after a 2002 bill allowed agencies to "reshape" rather than merely downsize their staffs.

The list of candidates for the Health Care Financing Administration's new headquarters has been whittled to four, with Owings Mills having been ruled out by the General Services Administration as a site for the federal agency that runs the Medicare and Medicaid programs."

The General Services Administration, under pressure from the House Government Operations Committee, agreed yesterday to suspend the assignment of the Navy to US Sprint's FTS 2000 government phone network pending further review.At the same time, GSA agreed to appoint an assistant administrator for FTS 2000 who will have responsibility for managing the FTS 2000 program. The new assistant administrator, who has not been named, will have authority to decide the fate of the Navy assignment to Sprint's network.

WASHINGTON -- Taxpayers paid more than $1 million last year for members of Congress to lease vehicles, including dozens of gas-guzzling SUVs and expensive luxury cars. Some members of Congress used their office budgets to lease Lexuses, Lincolns, Cadillacs, an Infiniti, even a BMW 530i, which one auto critic called "one of the world's best sport luxury sedans." The lease prices of some cars topped $1,000 a month. A few leased two cars on the taxpayers' dime; two lawmakers leased three.

The Social Security Administration is considering moving its Baltimore-based employees because their building has so much empty space and needs expensive repairs, the agency said last week. SSA spokesman Mark Lassiter said the 26-year-old Metro West building on North Greene Street was designed to hold up to 5,000 employees but that automation has reduced the number of people who work there to fewer than 2,000. The 1.4 million-square-foot building needs a new heating and air-conditioning system and security improvements.