Experts at a Congressional hearing this week unveiled more examples of federal waste as the Department of Government Efficiency continues to examine federal spending.
Chief Executive Officer at Open the Books, John Hart, testified at the hearing, criticizing what he called the “opulent” federal spending on real estate as well as $4.6 billion spent on furniture since 2021.
Hart pointed to glaring examples, from the State Department spending $140,000 to buy 40 high-end Ethan Allen chairs to the same agency spending $200,000 for a pair of abstract art paintings, part of $1.4 million in spending for art at embassies.
“During the peak years of the Covid emergency, from 2020 to 2022, agencies spent $3.3 billion on furniture even as work migrated to Zoom,” Hart testified. “The Department of Transportation was among those least-attended agencies with 9% occupancy but still spent $55 million on furniture. The Department of Justice was among the agencies with an average of 35% attendance yet still managed to spend $408 million on furniture. Meanwhile, a quote-unquote ‘refresh’ at DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, came with high-end Herman Miller furniture and a $250,000 price tag.
“And the SEC managed to spend $700,000 furnishing a single conference room in New York,” he added.
Experts testified at a hearing this week held by the House Subcommittee, Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new subcommittee meant to accompany efforts in the Trump administration led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The hearing came alongside a report from the Government Accountability Office released this week that was critical of federal spending on office buildings and furniture.
That report showed that even though many federal buildings have been underused, the cost to maintain them is growing.
“DOD and federal civilian building repair backlogs have more than doubled, going from $171 billion to $370 billion from fiscal year 2017 through 2024…” the report said. “Unless this trend reverses, federal assets will continue to deteriorate and need premature replacement, which can be significantly more expensive than the cost of repairs had they not been delayed.”
Notably, DOGE has publicly claimed it has ended nearly 700 federal leases, something the GAO has not had time to review.
“Here in DC, GAO found in 2023 that the vast majority of federal agency headquarters buildings were less than 25% occupied, some much less,” DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said at the hearing, one of a series where she has highlighted an array of controversial federal spending items.
“In 2021, the CDC spent almost a quarter million dollars on solar powered picnic tables,” Greene later added, one of many eye-catching spending facts at the hearing.
