Florida pol says GSA acted without approval when it signed WTC lease

Florida Rep. John Mica, who chairs the house’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, says the General Services Administration acted without his approval when it signed its lease at New York’s 1 World Trade Center. “We want to hear GSA’s justification for their actions and will take that into consideration for any potential next steps,” Mica told the New York Post, though he did not specify what those “next steps” might be.

Mica is reported to be fighting the GSA lease because he is in a quarrel with the Obama administration over a lease in Washington D.C. for the Federal Trade Commission. The GSA signed a lease for 270,000 square feet of space at the WTC tower last month, five years after negotiations began.

The government agency spokesperson responded, saying that the GSA has “the legal authority to proceed, [but] we chose to send the lease to Congress in the spirit of cooperation and transparency.” The spokesperson said that “the House committee had ample opportunity to review and act, and it did not.”

Senator Chuck Schumer also weighed in, telling the Post that “the GSA had the authority to move forward with the lease, and they did. It was far past time that [the deal] got done.” [Post, 3rd item] — Guelda Voien