(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today reiterated its opposition to a  Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) proposal to build a new $1.6 billion office complex of palatial proportions in Northern Virginia.  CCAGW is urging the Senate to agree to an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would prohibit PTO from going forward with its plans until after the General Services Administration (GSA) submits a detailed financial statement to Congress.

“With the Patent and Trademark Office planning to award a contract within the next three months, it is essential that Congress act now to stop this ludicrous scheme,” remarked CCAGW President Thomas A. Schatz.  “If this proposal is allowed to go forward, it will wind up making the $800 million Ronald Reagan International Trade Building boondoggle look like pocket change in comparison.”

The present Patent and Trademark proposal calls for the leasing of a new 2.4 million-square-foot, eight-building complex expected to cost taxpayers $1.3 billion over the 20-year life of the lease.  In addition, PTO is planning to spend another $250 million to purchase new furniture, finish the interior of the facility, and add amenities such as jogging and walking trails, open-air amphitheaters and state of the art fitness facilities.  In contrast, remaining at the present PTO headquarters in Crystal City would save taxpayers between $166.8 million and $237.5 million in lease payments alone.

“Although walking trails and marble floors make for a pleasant work environment, taxpayers and the inventors should not be forced to pay for such extravagance,” Schatz said.  “PTO should be looking for ways to save money, not spend it.”

One of the most astonishing aspects of the PTO proposal is a $64 million allocation for the purchase of new office furniture.  Among the items PTO deems essential for its operations are 141 $2,893 conference tables, four $13,298 modular tables, 141 $3,000 projection screens, 300 $100 trash cans, 52 $562 stools, and 18 $250 shower curtains.  The prospectus even includes nine $1,000 coat racks, normally priced by GSA at $145 apiece.

PTO justifies the purchase of the furniture in a report compiled by Deva & Associates, P.C.  The Deva study estimates that it would cost $111.5 million – nearly twice the cost of purchasing new furniture at inflated prices – to move the present PTO furniture and use it at a new location.

“Only a beltway bureaucrat could concoct a proposal claiming that use of existing furniture would cost nearly twice as much as buying new furniture,” Schatz stated.  “As the 18^th century philosopher Edmund Burke once said, ‘No one who is allowed to walk around without a keeper can possibly believe that!’”

A recent inspector general’s (IG) report concluded that PTO is also not taking the environmental cleanup costs of possible new locations seriously.  A draft environmental impact study by GSA found that simply removing contaminated soil at the two sites under consideration would cost between $60 million and $194 million.  However, the IG chastised GSA for not going beyond this finding to include an overall estimate of cleanup costs.

The McCain Amendment to the FY 1999 Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations bill (S. 2260) would prohibit PTO from spending any funds to plan for or proceed with relocation and construction of a new facility until GSA submits a detailed report to Congress on spending options associated with the proposal.  The amendment also requires GSA to consider a lease-to-purchase option and to prepare its report without regard to a specific geographic location.

“Congress needs to reexamine the PTO proposal for the most cost-effective option,” Schatz stated.  “After all, when the proposed lease is over, PTO will have spent a $1.6 billion and own nothing.  At least with the Reagan Trade Building the government wound up with something of value for its bushels of money.”

CCAGW is a 600,000-member lobbying organization dedicated to enacting legislation to eliminate waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and abuse in the federal government.