Plans To Expand National Gallery of Arts While Saving Millions For Taxpayers

National Gallery of Art

This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Republican John L. Mica (FL), voted to give the National Gallery of Art more space across Constitutional Avenue in the building that headquarters the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The massive historic building has 306,000 square feet and would allow the Gallery to expand exhibitions and educational programs and to provide office space and storage for the art collection. The estimated funding of $200 million to renovate the building and exhibits will paid for by "private" funding. In addition, the taxpayers will save $145 million a year, a 10 yr savings of $1.45 billion, which is currently paid to lease 60,000 square feet of supplement space for the National Art Gallery in addition to its two national landmark buildings.

FTC officials / bureaucrats are not too happy to relocate their headquarters to one of their other government buildings. They argued that the the government will incur costs to replicate their present functions at the new location. However, it is not expected that these relocation costs under Republican oversight would be near Savings for even one year that is spent on renting supplemental space for the present gallery.

The Committee also passed a resolution giving the General Services Administration (GSA) the authority to go ahead with the plan. A Senate committee has to pass the same resolution before the GSA can go ahead with the move. Approval by the White House is not needed as oversight of all government property in Washington, D.C. is controlled by Congress.

In conclusion, if this action moves forward, this committee will not only have saved millions for taxpayers but will have facilitated the creating of new jobs paid for by private funds to renovated the old FTC building for the National Art Galley. Conservatives love art as much as liberals. However, conservatives are focused on solutions, saving taxpayers money, and creating jobs. Maybe it is time for the committee responsible for oversight of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to examine the operation of the FTC to see if they could trim their operation as the relocate their headquarters and hopefully combine operations.

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