Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spoke at a House DOGE Committee hearing on Tuesday about selling federal buildings.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you for our witnesses coming today. We greatly appreciate it. And thank you to the American people for tuning in into what is an extremely important issue. Your Social Security is not under attack. Medicare is not under attack. Veterans benefits are not under attack. But our very existence is under attack.
00:22And this has happened by dirty, greedy, lazy politicians and bureaucrats who have plunged you and chained you in $36 trillion in debt. You are under attack. And you've been under attack by your own federal government. We're here today proudly to talk about how we can reduce this debt.
00:52It's the right way to protect you. And as Republicans, we believe in this and we proudly stand with President Trump, Elon Musk and their doge efforts to reduce the size of the federal government, reduce the federal debt. And we are so grateful. And definitely America voted for President Trump to stand up for Americans, the American worker and American companies with tariffs that return the order back to America.
01:21to America and defeat the globalists who have attacked American interests, stolen
01:26intellectual property from American companies, and have turned rural America
01:31into a graveyard of factories that have been shut down and American jobs that
01:37have been shipped overseas. So I want to say directly thank you President Trump
01:42for standing up for us and we will be so happy when you stick up for us and make
01:49it fair again through these tariffs. The federal government's management of its
01:55massive real estate portfolio has been problematic for decades. Everyone knows
02:00it. The United States is 36 trillion dollars in debt and fiscal year 24 the
02:05government spent over 1.8 trillion more than it took in and in fiscal year 25 the
02:12interest on our debt is expected to exceed 1 trillion dollars. Many Americans are
02:19suffering every day while the federal government continues to recklessly spend
02:23hard-earned taxpayer dollars to foot the bill of luxurious high-end furniture for
02:30offices or on the flip side carelessly waste billions on unused buildings and
02:35leases. Young people cannot afford to buy a house. For today's 27 year olds only 33
02:43percent owned their homes versus 40 percent of baby boomers when they were 27. From
02:512019 to 2024 housing prices in my home state of Georgia increased by up to 67
02:57percent as did areas all across the country everything went up life became
03:04unaffordable. Over the past four years under Democrats overall inflation hit 20
03:09percent. The cost of food increased nearly 34 percent and the cost of energy
03:14increased nearly 33 percent and credit card debt was up nearly 50 percent. As
03:20Americans racked up grocery bills credit card debt and couldn't afford to buy a
03:25home the federal bureaucrats recklessly spend their money without a care in the
03:30world. In the last year seven and ten Americans completed at least one DIY project. Do it
03:37yourself and nearly 50 percent said it was because they couldn't afford
03:43professionals to do it. Americans are either renovating their own houses by
03:48themselves because they can't afford to hire a company to do it or in many cases
03:52they will have to go without. What do federal bureaucrats do when they need to
03:58renovate a conference room or redecorate an office? They spend seven hundred
04:03thousand and six point five million of your money to do it. American businesses
04:10can't afford these types of upgrades and the reality is that the federal government
04:15is thirty six trillion dollars in debt and can't afford it either. As we continue
04:20investigating waste fraud and abuse we can look no further the unconscious
04:26unconscionable amount of spending that the federal government spends on empty
04:30buildings and brand-new high-end furnitures and something as ridiculous as solar
04:37powered picnic tables. Every year taxpayers have to spend about ten billion
04:42dollars just to operate and maintain it all in addition to backlog of deferred
04:48maintenance that is now up to three hundred and seventy billion dollars. In 2023 GAO
04:55reported that 17 of the 24 largest federal agencies use 25 percent or less of their
05:02headquarters buildings capacity and none of these agencies ever utilized more than
05:0849 percent of the buildings capacity in an average week. I just want to inform you
05:14that that all happened at the same time with when homeless rates skyrocketed and
05:19veterans were kicked out to make room for illegal aliens. When you own
05:24property in the real world if you breach a term of your mortgage agreement you
05:30mismanage your finances or you miss payments the lender will repossess your
05:36property and auction it off. While the federal government can't miss payments
05:41because they will just print more money they have grossly mismanaged their
05:45finances and it is time for the American people to evict federal bureaucrats
05:51repossess the properties and auction them off to the highest bidder.
05:56Thankfully the American people now have the president on their side. While the previous
06:01administration did little to address the problems laid out here today we're
06:06finally seeing meaningful progress under President Trump. The early successes of
06:11selling off unused properties and canceling wasteful leases by the Department of Government
06:17Efficiency shows what can be accomplished with strong leadership. With Congress and
06:23the Trump Administration working together I'm confident we can finally resolve this
06:28decades-old problem and deliver the results and the money back to the American
06:33taxpayers. With that and without objection all members have five legislative days
06:38within which to submit materials and additional written questions for the
06:43witnesses which will be forwarded to the witnesses.