Appropriators block merger of GSA offices

Language in a measure to fund domestic agencies through the rest of the fiscal year would deal a blow to efforts to merge two offices within the General Services Administration and scale back budget increases for the agency's investigative branch.

A provision in the bill (H.J. RES. 20), which was on the House floor Wednesday, would bar GSA from merging its Office of Government Policy with its Office of Congressional Affairs and Intergovernmental Affairs. Language in the bill filed late Monday also would raise appropriations for the GSA inspector general's office by $8 million from what was in the agency's request for fiscal 2007, from $44.3 million to $52.3 million.

This increase would bring the IG office to nearly the $53.6 million it had asked GSA Administrator Lurita Doan to seek for fiscal 2008. She denied that request and instead sought $47.8 million for that year. Critics have said Doan's attempts to scale back the IG's proposed operations threaten to undermine the independence of the investigative arm.

The office merger that the bill would block has been characterized as an attempt to better coordinate legislative proposals and regulatory and policy work by formalizing an Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and Governmentwide Policy. Kevin Messner, who now holds the title of acting associate administrator of the office, was designated to lead the merged organization.

Sources within GSA said the merger has been put on hold as a result of the language, but in a statement Wednesday, Messner said there still will be an umbrella organization over the two offices. A GSA spokesman said there never was a merger planned, and that the GSA order established a coordinating office.

"In many areas, we are trying to make GSA more efficient, communicate better and coordinate more effectively," Messner said in the statement.

Sources said members of Congress were concerned that the dollars appropriated to the governmentwide policy office would be mixed with those for the congressional affairs office. GSA officials have said that reports that the merger would eliminate the policy office's direct appropriation account were false.

It remained unclear Wednesday which member of Congress had inserted the provision in the 137-page bill.

David Marin, staff director for House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., said Davis is opposed to the language.

"He thinks managers should be allowed to manage without tinkering or interference from Congress," Marin said. "At the very least, this is an authorizing provision that should be discussed and decided by authorizers, not appropriators."

In other news concerning GSA, a string of senior agency officials leaving the agency continued Wednesday. David Bethel, associate administrator in the agency's Office of Citizen Services and Communications, announced his retirement. A GSA spokeswoman confirmed that Bethel's last day at the agency was Wednesday.

Bethel, reached at his home Wednesday afternoon, said he is glad to be retired and had been planning to do so for some time. "I could have retired three years ago, but now seemed like a good time to do it," he said.

Bethel's deputy, Martha Dorris, will serve as the office's acting associate administrator until a permanent replacement is found, a GSA spokeswoman confirmed.

In November, John Sindelar, GSA's acting associate administrator of the governmentwide policy office, announced his retirement. That was followed by a retirement announcement from G. Martin Wagner, deputy commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, earlier this month.

Wednesday also was the last day for Emily Murphy, GSA's chief acquisition officer. She announced earlier this month that she planned to leave for the private sector.