OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart: Federal Agencies Spent More than $4.6 Billion on Furniture Since 2021

HART: “... on high-end pieces. Since fiscal year 2021, executive agencies have spent more than $4.6 billion on furniture alone. That amount could buy 9.2 million American families a modest $500 kitchen table. During the peak years of the Covid emergency, from 2020 to 2022, agencies spent $3.3 billion on furniture, even as work migrated to Zoom. The SEC managed to spend $700,000 furnishing a single conference room in New York. And social distancing guidelines failed to keep even the Centers for Disease Control from buying solar-powered picnic tables with charging ports that, by their own rules, should have sat unoccupied. And an added burden for taxpayers is that many spaces are in long-term disrepair, as we mentioned before. Federal buildings need $370 billion in fixes.”