In response to a congressional request, we investigated whether U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI or Department) officials made false statements to Congress related to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) need to move out of its Washington, DC offices to various western locations. The statements at issue were made in two letters to congressional committees and hearing testimony. The BLM’s statements asserted that the BLM was unable to remain at its 20 M Street location in Washington, DC, after its lease expired in January 2021, because the new lease rate would exceed $50 per rentable square foot (rsf). We did not review policy decisions behind the Department’s decision to move BLM headquarters personnel to western offices.
We determined that the Department’s statement that it could not remain at its 20 M Street location due to the expiration of its lease was accurate because the Department and BLM had longstanding plans to move BLM personnel into the Stewart Lee Udall DOI Building (commonly referred to as the Main Interior Building or MIB) or another Federal facility, and thus, the BLM did not engage the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to initiate negotiations with the landlord and obtain congressional approval for a renewed lease as required under Federal law and regulations.
We also found, however, that the future cost of a new BLM lease in Washington, DC, was not the motivating factor in the BLM’s decision not to renew its lease because of the Department’s longstanding intent to move BLM staff into a Federal facility. Therefore, the Department’s assertion that the BLM was unable to remain at its 20 M Street location after its lease expired in January 2021 because the new rate would exceed $50 per rsf was misleading.
We did not find evidence that the DOI and BLM officials who signed or submitted the letters and testimony in question were personally involved in drafting their respective statements about the cost of renewing a lease at 20 M Street. Rather, we found that DOI and BLM staff interpreted information from the GSA that described market rates for commercial leases in the Washington, DC area as generally $50/rsf or higher to develop the definitive language used in the DOI and BLM officials’ statements to Congress.
We provided this report to the Chief of Staff for the Office of the Secretary for any action deemed appropriate.