Let's Cut Some Spending: $3 billion on furniture for empty federal buildings

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Remember the absolutely critical Omnibus spending bill Congress muscled through at the end of last year? It was 4,000 pages that no one read and cost taxpayers $1.7 trillion.

In our Let's Cut Some Spending series, ForAmerica will chronicle parts of the 2021 and 2022 spending bills from a variety of sources that you probably don't know about - programs, grants and spending of all kinds that should have never happened in the first place and many that are still happening.

Today’s offering: $3 billion on office furniture while federal employees worked from home!

The New York Post reports:

The federal government dropped $3.3 billion on new office furniture as the vast majority of its employees worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a watchdog report exclusively obtained by The Post shows.

Between 2020 and 2022, federal agencies spent more than $1 billion per year on the plush decor — a rate consistent with pre-pandemic levels despite departments filling just a quarter of their available office space on average.

The taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks.com revealed the furniture splurge in a study published Tuesday, citing a Government Accountability Office report that found 17 of the 24 federal agencies are using as little as 9% and as much as 49% of their building capacities well into the fourth year of the pandemic.

$3 billion on furniture for empty federal buildings...

...and they want more money from us.

Anytime any politician says they don't have enough funds, never believe them.

The U.S. federal government has more than enough money. They just don't know how to manage it.

But they sure know how to waste it.