Government Facility Management

The General Services Administration is asking Congress to give it as much budget authority as it brings in through rents and building sales so it can close the maintenance and repair gap that’s threatening the safety of people occupying federal buildings.  

 “GSA’s federally owned buildings are now, on average, over 50 years old, and many of the buildings have not undergone any significant modernizations since they were constructed,” the agency says in its fiscal year 2027 budget request, released earlier this month. 

The agency says it’s facing some $26 billion in cumulative backlogged building repairs, creating life-safety risks to building occupants.  

“Backlogged repairs and alterations in federally owned facilities [are exacerbating] the risk of critical system failures [and] the safety and well-being of occupant agencies,” the agency says. 

The agency operates a federal buildings fund that generates billions of dollars each year in income from the rents that federal agencies pay to occupy federally owned buildings and from the proceeds it generates in building sales. The fund was established in the early 1970s to enable GSA to operate more like a private business by using its own income to maintain and upgrade buildings, but since 2011 Congress hasn’t authorized it to use the full amount to meet building needs.  

“Without access to the full rental income and proceeds from property sales, GSA cannot adequately maintain its facilities to standards comparable to private sector landlords, address critical deferred maintenance backlogs, or strategically modernize federal workspaces,” the agency says. 

The fund generated almost $15 billion in fiscal 2025 but Congress has been diverting billions of dollars to offset funding gaps in other agencies. “This represents a trend in which GSA is collecting commercially equivalent rent from its occupant agencies but is precluded from reinvesting all of these funds in providing quality space and services to those rent-paying agencies,” the agency says in its budget request from last year. “Instead [the funds] were used to offset increases for other agencies.”

For fiscal 2027, the agency is asking for $1.2 billion in appropriations over and above what it can use from the buildings fund to undertake maintenance and repairs, up from roughly $620 million that it’s been receiving in recent years.

“To prevent the deferred maintenance backlog from growing, GSA conservatively needs annual appropriations to exceed $1.2 billion, significantly more than the current average of $620 million,” it says. 

The work it needs to do includes “major repairs to malfunctioning elevators, replacement of obsolete electrical systems, updates to outdated fire alarm systems, seismic retrofits, and environmental abatement,” the agency says. 

It’s also asking for authority to tap into all of the revenue it collects in the fund. 

“The FY 2027 Budget includes a proposal to facilitate GSA’s full access to annual revenues and collections” from the federal buildings fund, it says.

GSA’s budget proposal starts its fiscal 2027 funding process by letting Congress know what its priorities are. Lawmakers will hammer out actual appropriations in bills for passage in the House and Senate. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Agencies across the federal government are using energy performance contracts to make efficiency upgrades at facilities with little or no capital expense, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy that was renamed the National Lab of the Rockies in December. 

As happens in the private sector, agencies can enter into contracts with energy service companies, or ESCOs, to design, install and finance measures that are intended to pay for themselves over time. In the typical case, the ESCO guarantees the energy savings, using the money saved to pay for the project cost, reducing the financial risk. 

With the federal government’s rollback of energy efficiency programs, working with ESCOs is a way to make needed upgrades without seeking budget funds or looking to Congress for appropriations, the NREL report says. 

There are signs that ESCOs and agencies are increasing their work together. For example, GreenGen, an energy service company, recently hired retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Omar Jones IV to its advisory board, a move that marks a push by the company to build its public sector business. 

“GreenGen is experiencing more public sector activity than ever before,” Brad Dockser, founder and CEO of GreenGen, said in a statement. 

If they work with ESCOs, agencies must comply with numerous requirements. The Energy Act of 2020, for example, requires them to conduct what are called EISA 432 evaluations and implement measures that the evaluations identify. EISA stands for the Energy Independence and Security Act, a law enacted in 2007. The statute requires agencies to use performance contracting to address at least 50% of the energy conservation measures, or ECMs, that are identified. 

In other requirements, the agencies must implement the ECMs within two years of the evaluation date and file reports on the efforts and their work under the contracts. They also face energy efficiency rules and cost thresholds for new construction and major renovations, among many others.

More engagement between agencies and energy service companies, or ESCOs, could be in the works. An update to Section 23 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, released last year in October, encourages agencies to use the contracts to get work done.  

“Agencies should make maximum use of the authority provided in the National Energy Conservation Policy Act … to use an energy savings performance contract (ESPC), when life-cycle cost-effective to reduce energy use and cost in the agency's facilities and operations,” the update says.  

Agencies can contract with energy service companies for up to 25 years to improve energy efficiency at no direct cost to the U.S. Treasury, the update says.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has set up strike forces to tackle deferred maintenance at its facilities and it’s starting to pay off, the agency’s deputy director said last week in a video message to agency employees. 

“These teams provide the Bureau for the first time ever a quick-reaction force capable of stabilizing damaged institutions, accelerating repairs and maintaining continuity of operations without a long wait or the added cost of outside contractors,” Federal Bureau of Prisons Deputy Director Joshua Smith said in the address. 

For example, a 25-person team is completing restoration of the federal prison in Estill, South Carolina, which was damaged by a tornado in 2020. The 175-mile-per-hour storm killed five and injured 60 in Hampton County. 

“This work is being done entirely by our Bureau professionals along with some of our inmates that work in our facilities department,” said Smith. 

The Bureau saved almost $15 million by keeping the work in-house, he said, “all while returning the institution to a safe, reliable and compliant operation much faster than even the estimated highest contractors bid.” 

Funding for its strike force initiative comes from a $2 billion BOP earmark for critical infrastructure improvements in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted last year. That amount would address about half of the $4 billion backlog in maintenance and repair reported by the Bureau. 

“Most of our facilities are in an unacceptable condition, for both our staff and the inmates,” Smith said. “That reality hasn’t changed. What has changed is [we] are fixing the problems instead of just talking about them.”

Other projects the strike forces are working on include new water heaters at a prison in Manchester, Kentucky; a new ceiling at a prison in Miami; a new fire alarm system at a prison in Montgomery, Alabama; and security enhancements at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas, Smith said.   

Some 450 BOP facilities staff have volunteered to be on call for these assignments, he said. “These strike teams work side by side with the institution staff and the inmate population,” he said. “In the process inmates are gaining real marketable trades skills inside our institutions, using professional tools under the guidance of our Bureau experts.”

The Bureau has made some administrative changes as part of the initiative to make it easier for work to get approved. “Thresholds for major work orders have been raised and directives modernized so urgent repairs move forward without the months of unnecessary delays all of you have dealt with in the past.” he said.

The agency oversees 122 prisons in about 40 states and territories.  

Schools in three districts in Florida will be testing the use of drones armed with nonlethal weapons to respond more forcefully to active shooter incidents, the company involved in the initiative told Facilities Dive. 

Lawmakers in the state approved $557,000 in the 2025-2026 state budget to pay for the demonstrations using drones operated by Texas-based company Campus Guardian Angel. The Florida Department of Education will select the districts, according to a CBS News report. Miami-Dade County Public Schools has shown interest in participating, CBS reported. 

More than 60 school shootings have been reported in Florida since 2018, Newsweek reported, based on data from the K-12 School Shooting Database.

The drones are stored on-site on charging pads in secure boxes. School officials can activate them using a silent alarm or other mechanisms, the company says. Once activated, the drones can get anywhere on school grounds within 15 seconds, according to Justin Marston, the company’s CEO and cofounder. Once airborne, they offer two-way communication through an embedded speakerphone. They also can break glass, make loud noises, fire nonlethal pepper-spray pellets or take other action within a minute as a first response to an incident. 

"In a school shooting, most of the death happens in the first 120 seconds, so it's really about how quickly can you get there to engage the shooter,” Marston said in the CBS News report. 

“We’re trying to buy the time that it takes for a human to get there,” said Bill King, the company’s chief tactical officer and cofounder, in a NewsNation report. 

Campus Guardian Angel operators control the drones from an operations center in Texas. Once the drones are activated, a company commander uploads a digital map of the school, issues a flight plan and coordinates tactical movements with the school and law enforcement and makes decisions on engagement. FAA-certified pilots fly the drones. 

Local law enforcement and first responders can see what’s happening on video and coordinate with the drone commander; the two-way communications and other features on the drone also can support those on site, the company says. 

"We feed live video to police, show exactly what's happening, where the suspect is, and even smash through windows with a glass punch to create distractions,” Marston told Newsweek. 

The pilots include former drone racers and military and police veterans, according to the company. “Our elite team … has saved hundreds of lives and logged tens of thousands of hours of professional drone piloting,” the company says on its website. 

At a demonstration of the drones at AcadeMir Preparatory High School in South Miami-Dade, the company showed how the drones are capable of using what the company calls “kinetic energy hits” to knock someone over. 

Once the Florida DOE selects the districts, they’ll pay about $1,000 per month for the drones needed for a school of 500 students, according to Marston.

A box of six drones with all networking and response effects costs $15,000, the company says on its website. Schools will need between three and 15 boxes, sometimes more, depending on the size of the campus, the company estimates. 

In Texas, installations are underway in four school districts and a university, Marston said in the CBS News report. The company has also conducted demonstrations in Colorado and Utah, the NewsNation report says. 

A recreation center in Brooklyn is the first public building in New York City to meet LEED v4 Platinum standards for environmental sustainability, according to the NYC Department of Design and Construction. Two private buildings have also met the standard. 

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush earlier this month. The strategies employed to meet the LEED certification standards will help the center use less than half that of similar buildings, while reducing costs by 34% and fresh water use by 43%, according to the agency

“The Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center is an all-electric building designed to the highest standards for environmental sustainability, and is a milestone not just for Brooklyn but also for construction reform in New York City,” DDC Acting Commissioner Eduardo del Valle said in a statement. “DDC provided a world-class design and was able to deliver it in record time through our growing design-build program, saving at least three years of project time. We look forward to similar results with the other projects in our design-build portfolio, including three other Parks recreation centers.”

The 74,000-square-foot recreation center includes a six-lane swimming pool, three-lane walking track, competition-sized gym and space for team sports, exercise and educational programming as well as audio-visual production in a media lab. Using the design-build method of contracting, DDC was able to complete the center at least three years faster than would have been possible under the traditional system of lowest bidder contracting, with a projected 10% cost savings, the agency says. The center is the city’s first completely public building to be constructed using the design-build method of contracting, DDC said. 

City lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 allowing design-build contracting, which permits designers and builders to meet early in the process rather than wait until after the design is completed.

In addition to environmental sustainability, the project earned LEED credits in categories for on-site bike parking, a reduced vehicular parking footprint, on-site electric vehicle chargers for Parks vehicles, an effective erosion control plan, reduction of the heat island effect and elimination of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, in the HVAC system, according to DDC.

The $141 million project features enhanced interior air quality, use of materials with low volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, use of LED lighting and enhanced lighting and HVAC controls that allow for control of individual spaces inside the building, per DDC. 

Stormwater is managed on-site, reducing loading on the city’s sewer systems, DDC said. 

NYU’s Rubin Hall at 35 Fifth Avenue and the residential rental development known as “Sven” in Long Island City are the two other buildings in the city that have met LEED v4 Platinum standards, DDC said. 

Charlotte, N.C., is building the Southeast’s first all-electric fire station and first net-zero police station.

The facilities are contributing to Charlotte’s Strategic Energy Action Plan, a resolution to fuel its fleets and facilities with 100% zero-carbon sources by 2030.

The $16.4 million firehouse “will serve as a model for other cities looking to invest in sustainable and effective emergency response infrastructure,” Charlotte Fire Chief Reginald Johnson said in a statement.

Charlotte City Council adopted an updated Strategic Energy Action Plan outlining “bold goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to clean energy and create a more resilient community” in May. The plan builds on the city’s Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2021.

The Strategic Energy Action Plan outlines five steps to move the city toward zero-carbon: shifting energy demand, reducing energy consumption, changing the type of energy consumed, generating energy on-site and purchasing the remainder of energy from zero-carbon sources.

The city tapped Swinerton Builders to build the firehouse and the $19.7 million station for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Northwest Division. Swinerton last year broke ground on the 14,000-square-foot Firehouse #30, which is expected to be completed this month. It broke ground on the police station, which it anticipates will be complete in September 2026, in June. 

“Being able to be part of the building process and see some of the different features that the city is starting to look at from a sustainability standpoint is really intriguing,” said Kevin Smith, vice president, division manager for Swinerton Carolinas Division. 

Firehouse #30 is one of the first all-electric facilities of its kind in the U.S., according to Swinerton. Smith said the city stipulated the project qualify for U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification, but it is on track to obtain LEED Gold.

The firehouse will house an all-electric Vector fire truck, expected to be the first of its kind to operate in the Southeast region.

The 16,000-square-foot police station will be climate-controlled by a geothermic well system that uses the earth’s stable temperature to heat and cool the building without fuel or electricity. A solar field is planned for powering the building’s infrastructure.  

“I think it’s really awesome that our public safety is also being a symbol for innovation and sustainable technology throughout our city, because it’s really the interaction that a lot of our community has with the city first,” Robyn Byers, assistant director of Charlotte’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience, said at the June groundbreaking for the police station. “Again, it helps share that sustainability is important for the city as a whole.”

The city’s latest available benchmarking report showed an 8.2% decline in “energy use intensity” portfolio-wide from 2022 to 2023. However, the report also noted 56.3% of offices recorded increases in energy use intensity in 2023, signaling an “opportunity to review for improvements.”

The union representing the federal employees at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is calling on agency leaders to install bulletproof building glass after a gunman shot more than 180 rounds into a handful of buildings on the CDC campus August 8. 

Nobody at the CDC was injured, but about 150 windows were broken. It could take weeks or even months to replace windows and clean up damage at the buildings, which were already protected by blast-resistant glass, according to reports.   

“We will not accept this as ‘business as usual,’ and temporary fixes won't cut it,” the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883 said August 11.

In addition to the installation of bulletproof glass, the union wants all-day perimeter security with armed guards across CDC campuses, weapons detection procedures and emergency access, an enhanced alert system and more extensive evacuation planning. 

“Staff should not be required to work next to bullet holes,” the union said. 

The gunman, Patrick Joseph White, was reportedly acting on the belief the COVID-19 vaccination caused mental health issues that left him suicidal. The gunman killed DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, who responded to the incident, before shooting himself.  

“We are grateful for the swift response of CDC security and local law enforcement,” CDC Director Susan Monarez said in a statement. 

It’s not clear how much of a role the use of blast-resistant glass played in preventing people inside the buildings from injury. 

Although White fired more than 180 shots and broke about 150 windows, “spattering glass shards into numerous rooms,” PBS reported, the blast-resistant glass appeared to prevent the kind of large-scale shattering that leads to mass injuries, news reports indicate. 

“Photos viewed by CNN taken from inside one CDC building depict bullet holes in windows and shattered glass on the floor,” a CNN report says. “The images show rounds of ammunition flying just above a line of office cubicles where employees sit.”

In a blast, flying glass shrapnel tends to cause the most injuries to building occupants, according to a 2023 study published in Disaster Resilience and Sustainability of Structures and Infrastructures. 

In the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, for example, most of the 680 people who were injured were hit with flying debris. “The flying glass fragments accounted for nearly 75% of the injuries,” the report said. The bombing killed 168 people.

Similar results were seen in a 2015 building explosion in Tianjin harbour in China, the report said. “Glass fragments were the main cause of injury” among the almost 800 people who were hurt, the researchers said. The explosions killed 173 people, according to official reports.

Different grades of glass

Blast-resistant windows are designed to provide a layer of defense against the pressure and impulse of an explosion, a U.S. Bullet Proofing information page says. “With blast rated windows, your structure can be protected against an explosion as well as any flying debris that may result,” the page says. 

Bulletproof windows are different, according to specialists in the field. “Bulletproof glass isn’t designed to be completely impenetrable to bullets,” a Window Film Depot information page says. “Depending on the thickness and quality of the glass, some types of bulletproof glass will shatter with continual impact.” 

Bulletproof glass comes in four categories, Window Film Depot says: laminated, acrylic, polycarbonate and glass-clad polycarbonate. The polycarbonate and glass-clad polycarbonate tend to be the most protective because they’re strong and durable enough to prevent a bullet from shattering the glass. “As a result, the bullet will not ricochet around the interior protected space potentially causing further damage or injury,” according to the information page. 

Laminated glass acts more like a deterrent, slowing bullets down. “The lamination prevents the glass from shattering inward, but it may not stop a bullet from entering a building,” the page says.

Acrylic is stronger than glass and comparatively inexpensive, but depending on how thick it is, it might not stop a bullet. “It doesn’t offer the highest level of ballistic protection,” the Window Film page says. 

The use of ballistic film, which is applied to existing glass, has become popular in recent years because it’s far less expensive that glass, but building operators shouldn’t be misled into thinking it’s a substitute for bulletproof glass, Jim Richards, CEO of Total Security Solutions, said in a commentary last year published by the Security Industry Association. “What this product will do is keep a window from shattering out,” Richards says. It “will not stop a bullet.”

Schools have been turning to ballistic film as an inexpensive way to add a layer of security against shooting incidents, a Wall Street Journal report from last year says. School districts in recent years have spent more than $100 million for the purchase and installation of window film, it says.  

“We know that it’s not bulletproof film,” James Bailey, the security supervisor for Hampton City Schools in Virginia, told WSJafter the district spent almost $850,000 on window film. “We are trying to buy time if there was a serious incident.” 

The CDC leadership hasn’t yet responded to the security demands sought by the union. 

“Dr. Monarez and CDC leadership remain focused on supporting staff during an extraordinarily difficult time as evidenced by their continued direct engagement,” Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said August 12, CNN reported. 

“Friday’s shooting was a traumatic event for the agency, and leadership is working to provide continued updates along with resources for healing and recovery,” Nixon said.“There will be continued opportunities for staff engagement and dialogue in the days ahead.”

Faulty HVAC systems and other building problems are putting artifacts at risk at almost 80% of the roughly 17,000 state, local and private museums in the United States, the Government Accountability Office says in a report to Congress. 

“Systems like heating, cooling, and ventilation … are important to protecting a collection since fragile items may be vulnerable to humidity,” the watchdog agency said in a blog post about the report, released this week.

Water damage is a big risk to collections because many museums are in buildings that are under preservation constraints and lack funds to make repairs without affecting the historic integrity of the building, says the report, based on a survey of public and private museum officials and more than a dozen site visits.   

“One respondent wrote that unregulated temperatures and roof leaks threatened not only objects in their collection, but also the building itself, which they consider part of their collection,” the report says. 

Because so many museums are in older buildings, which are often small, and in buildings that were built for another purpose, artifacts are often stored in crowded basements with moisture issues that put them at risk of damage.

“In [a] museum we visited, representatives were concerned about periodic flooding in the basement, which, along with the lack of climate-controlled storage, endangers the collections stored there,” the report says. 

Flooding, mold and other risks can have an additional impact by making museums ineligible to accept some collections because they can’t ensure their protection, according to the report. 

“Environmental controls can be strict, particularly for museums that receive collections loaned from other museums,” the report states. 

An HVAC system in disrepair is the most widely shared problem among museums, followed by problems with the roof, windows, security system, flooring, plumbing, exterior walls, electrical system, foundation, elevators, fire protection system and interior walls. 

“Most responding museums in our sample with an HVAC system in poor condition in their primary building either do not have a planned repair or replacement project within the next 5 years or do not have funding allocated to fix their HVAC system,” the report says. 

Separate from the risk to collections, safety and accessibility are widely shared concerns, often from problems related to the building’s age, like uneven floors.  

“We estimate that nearly half of museums have a physical accessibility issue … that poses a potential health or safety concern,” the report says.

Accessibility is a particular issue when the building is itself an artifact, the report said. “Museum stakeholders … mentioned the challenges of improving accessibility, given historic preservation requirements specifying that building modifications cannot compromise historic building features.” 

For much of their income, museums rely on donations, and about 80% of museums say they use a portion of these funds for building maintenance, but donors often prefer to have their money go to programming. 

“Two museum association stakeholders said [there’s] limited interest from donors in funding maintenance or capital projects,” the report says.  

Public grants also tend to be directed at programming and not building upkeep. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency created in 1996 to oversee federal museum grant money, limits what the funds can be used for. 

“Since September 2003, museums have been prohibited from using these funds for construction-related expenses,” the report states.

About 85% of museums have a maintenance and repair backlog, and about 80% expect the backlog to persist or increase in the next three years, the report says. About half have a backlog of more than $100,000 each.

“A small museum we visited had an annual operating budget of $212,000,” GAO said in the blog post. “But it needed more than $289,000 for building repairs.”

Findings are based on 138 survey responses from a sample of 324 museums and 17 site visits. Federal museums weren’t part of the research.