The proposed budget allocates more than $10 billion for new construction, repairs, and renovations.
President Obama’s 2017 budget proposal for the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Building Fund is, at least tentatively, good news for the construction industry.
Esther Soria Mignanelli reports, in an article in Construction Law Blog, that more than $10 billion has been allocated for federal construction projects throughout the country.
The projects would be overseen by the GSA, “the federal government’s real estate manager and director of the government’s real estate strategies.”
The federal government owns or leases a vast number of buildings in almost every major city in the country. Most of these buildings need renovation. Many of the government’s offices have become too small to house the ever-expanding scope of the federal government’s activities unless they are increased in size. Most of these buildings need upgrades to meet the energy-efficiency standards mandated by the federal government.
New construction is also required. For instance, in “Boyers, Penn.: $31, 200, 000 [is required] for design and related services for the construction of a new federally owned facility of approximately 462,000 gross square feet to provide a long-term housing solution for agencies currently leasing an underground mine location within the area.”
Ms. Mignanelli states that the proposed budget “include[s] requests for over $1 billion worth of projects in and around the Washington, D.C., area.”
As the author notes, final appropriations made by Congress may differ from the priorities outlined in the GSA budget. This is to be expected.
Congress needs to provide the GSA with the funding it needs to proceed with these projects. They will be a great boon for the construction industry.
They are also in the best interest of the country as a whole. Construction costs, especially repairs and renovations, only become more costly as buildings age.
Source—
President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 Proposed Budget Includes Over $10 Billion for Federal Building Fund, Esther Soria Mignanelli, Construction Law Blog, Sept. 21, 2016.