The General Services Administration (GSA) is the federal government's primary civilian real property management agency with 11 regional offices that oversee GSA owned and leased properties across the nation. At the end of FY2012, GSA—through its real property office, the Public Buildings Service (PBS)—owned or leased 8,708 buildings with more than 422 million square feet of floor space, which represents about 12.6% of the government's 3.354 billion total building square footage. GSA's inventory includes offices, courthouses, and land ports of entry. Given the breadth of GSA's holdings, the agency is sometimes referred to as "the government's landlord." Until Congress enacted the Public Buildings Act in 1926, construction authority for each federal building was approved and funded in separate pieces of legislation. The 1926 act provided the basic authority for the construction of federal buildings through the congressional authorization and appropriation process. Congress later enacted the Public Buildings Act of 1949 to authorize the planning, site acquisition, and design of federal buildings located outside of Washington, DC, and for improvements to existing federal buildings. Congress also enacted the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, which established the General Services Administration (GSA), and gave the GSA Administrator (Administrator) responsibility for administering federal real property. In 1954, Congress amended the Public Buildings Act of 1949 to authorize the Administrator to acquire titles to real property and to construct federal buildings through lease-purchase contracts. Under this procedure, a building was financed by private capital, and the federal government made installment payments on the purchase price in lieu of rent payments. Title to the property was vested in the federal government at the end of the contract period, which could range from 10 to 30 years. When authority for lease-purchase contracts expired in 1957, Congress approved a successor statute, the Public Buildings Act of 1959. The 1959 act re-established earlier requirements to provide for direct federal construction of public buildings through the congressional authorization and appropriation process. This act, as amended and re-codified over the years, remains the basic statute authorizing the Administrator to construct, own, lease, operate, maintain, and renovate buildings to serve civilian agencies of the federal government. Notably, while GSA works with many executive branch agencies and the judiciary to meet their space needs, it generally does not perform real property functions on behalf of the legislative branch. GSA is responsible for the design and construction of its buildings and courthouses, and for repairs and alterations to existing facilities, including those that are leased. As part of the President's annual budget submission to Congress, GSA requests funding for new construction projects, as well as for purchasing, renovating, and leasing existing properties. Congress authorizes appropriations for these projects, however, through the prospectus approval process, which is discussed below. Under the Public Buildings Act, as amended (PBA), GSA is required to submit a formal document, known as a prospectus, to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (referred to throughout this report as the authorizing committees) as part of the process to authorize and appropriate funds for constructing, purchasing, leasing, or renovating real property. Each prospectus must include a brief description of the building to be constructed, altered, or leased; the building's location; an estimate of the maximum cost of the project; a statement by the Administrator that suitable space in existing government-owned buildings is not available; a statement of rents and other housing costs currently being paid by agencies that would occupy the newly constructed, renovated, or leased space; and an estimate of the future energy performance of the building. A prospectus is only required for projects with estimated costs that meet or exceed a specified amount, referred to as the prospectus threshold. Under authorities provided in 40 U.S.C. § 3307, GSA establishes annual prospectus thresholds for four different types of real property activities. A description of each threshold is provided in Table 1 below. GSA has the authority to adjust these thresholds each year in order "to reflect a percentage increase or decrease in construction costs during the prior calendar year." GSA adjusts the thresholds based on the Building Cost Index of the Engineering News-Record , an industry trade journal published by McGraw-Hill. As noted, for each project that meets or exceeds the appropriate threshold, GSA must submit a prospectus to the authorizing committees. Each committee must pass a resolution approving the prospectus before the project is authorized to receive appropriations. The resolutions must only be approved at the committee level—floor action is not required. If an appropriation is not made within one year after the date the prospectus was approved, the committees may pass resolutions rescinding their approval. Congress appropriates funds for GSA's authorized construction and leasing projects each fiscal year through the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill. Once a proposed project receives congressional funding—and not all authorized projects do—GSA's Public Buildings Service contracts with private sector firms for design and construction work. When leasing space, GSA searches for space that meets energy efficiency and renewable energy performance goals. In times of emergency or disaster—such as when a hurricane causes structural damage to a federal building—the normal prospectus thresholds and procedures are temporarily lifted to enable GSA to quickly find new space for displaced federal employees. To that end, GSA is authorized to enter into an emergency lease agreement without an approved prospectus during any period "declared by the President to require emergency leasing authority." Emergency leases may not exceed 180 days, however, without an approved prospectus. It is not uncommon for the cost of real property projects—particularly the construction of new buildings—to escalate as the project proceeds. GSA is required to resubmit an amended prospectus for congressional approval if the cost of the project exceeds the approved estimated maximum amount by more than 10%. The prospectus approval process provides Congress with an opportunity to exercise oversight of GSA's real property activities. With a multi-billion dollar budget and thousands of buildings under its control, GSA manages one of the government's largest and most diverse real property portfolios. Moreover, given its role as the procurer of space for numerous other agencies, congressional oversight of GSA's prospectus-level proposals has broad implications. In recent years, for example, GSA has submitted prospectuses to consolidate the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security at the St. Elizabeth's Campus in Washington, DC; construct a new courthouse in Rockford, IL; and expand a land port of entry in San Diego, CA. These projects illustrate the central role GSA-controlled buildings often play in helping federal agencies fulfill their unique missions. The prospectus process provides an opportunity for Congress to assess how well GSA's proposals meet the needs of its clients and to reject those that it finds poorly conceived or unnecessary. Congress may also use the prospectus approval process to evaluate cost and space projections. It is not uncommon for GSA to estimate that a single real property project will cost hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars. Poor project planning may result in cost escalation and unneeded space. The 33 courthouses built between 2000 and 2010, for example, included 3.56 million square feet of unneeded space, which in turn resulted in an additional $835 million in construction expenditures. This prompted Congress to ask the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit multiple courthouse construction and renovation projects to identify the origins of widespread cost overruns, and to hold hearings on how to address courthouse cost escalation. At a time when the debt and deficit are salient issues, prospectus approval may be considered an opportunity for Congress to control costs and avoid wasteful spending. The usefulness of the prospectus approval process as an oversight tool may be limited by data that are not available to authorizing committees. The lack of data that directly compare the cost of leasing versus owning space means that Congress is unable to determine whether it is being asked to approve the most cost-effective option for meeting an agency's real property needs. Similarly, the lack of data on the cost of alterations may prevent Congress from knowing the full costs associated with a particular lease prospectus. Oversight may also be limited by the number of real property projects for which prospectuses should be submitted as required by statute, but are not. One of the primary reasons GAO has listed federal real property management as a high-risk area since 2003 is that the government increasingly acquires space through leases rather than by constructing or purchasing buildings. Since 2008, GSA's portfolio has included more leased than owned space, even though leasing is often less cost effective, particularly if the space will be needed for long-term occupancy (20 years or more). One study of 27 long-term leases estimated that the government will spend $866 million more than it would have spent building or buying comparable space. Nonetheless, GSA's lease prospectuses do not include a comparison of the costs of leasing versus owning space over time, known as an alternative analysis. While GSA is not required by law to include an alternative analysis in its prospectuses, the absence of comparative cost data means Congress is making decisions without knowing whether a proposed lease is the most cost-effective option. The cost of leasing space is more than the sum of rent and operating expenses—in some cases, agencies need to alter leased space in order for it to meet the agencies' needs. An agency may determine, for example, that while the location and square footage are suitable, security features may need to be enhanced, technological capabilities upgraded, or conference rooms added. Such alterations are not necessarily included in the cost estimate of a lease prospectus because the actual building in which space will be leased has not been selected when GSA submits a prospectus. Typically, GSA first seeks authorization to enter into a lease and then identifies suitable space through a competitive process.