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The Honorable Emily W. Murphy
Administrator
U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
1800 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20405
Dear Administrator Murphy:
As you are well aware, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
("Committee") issued a subpoena to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) on October
24, 2019, seeking records that GSA had failed to provide to the Committee in response to a January
22, 2019, records request letter, specifically regarding financial records and legal memos relating to
the Old Post Office (OPO) Building lease to the Trump International Hotel. Despite our best
efforts to work with GSA to consider reasonable accommodations in this process, GSA has failed to
comply with this subpoena.
It gives us no comfort that under your direction GSA is resisting not just the legitimate
oversight efforts of the U.S. Congress but also the oversight efforts of your own internal Inspector
General (IG). Our government is built upon checks and balances, and as Members of Congress we
have an obligation to perform critical oversight of the Executive Branch. Your steadfast refusal to
comply with these efforts is not just disconcerting but an affront to the democratic institutions that
the United States has been founded upon.
The GSA I G's most recent Semiannual Report to Congress' highlighted your agency's
refusal to implement the IG's recommendations in its January 2019 report on the OPO Building
lease2, including the revision of language in GSA leases to avoid future ambiguity and to clearly
articulate that Federally elected officials are barred from participating in leases of Federal buildings
in order to comply with the Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Rather than
implementing the IG's recommendations, however, your agency has stuck with its decision that,
1

"Semiannual Report to the Congress," Office oflnspector General (OIG), U.S. General Services Administration
(GSA), April 1, 2019-September 30, 2019, accessed here: https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default /fi.les/semiannualreports/GS.\-OIG-SAR-11-2019%20508.pdf.
2 "Evaluation of GSA's Management and Administration of the Old Post Office Building Lease," )El 9-002 (Redacted),
Office of Inspector General (OIG), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), january 16, 2019, accessed here:
https: // www.gsaig.gov I content/ evalua tion-gsas-ma nagement-and-administration-old-post-o ffice-building-lease

 Administrator Emily Murphy
December 20, 2019
Page 2
according to the IG, "improperly ignored the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses." As highlighted
in your recent response to the Committee's Questions for the Record (QFRs), GSA has decided
only to include language in outleases barring conflicts with Members of Congress and has
intentionally ignored the conflicts-of-interest posed by the President of the United States.
Given the clear concerns raised by GSA's improper handling of the OPO Building lease by
the IG and others, the relevance of our Committee's request for financial records and legal memos
related to the lease cannot be overstated. We wrote to you on September 10, 2019, detailing the
Committee's request for these records and the Committee's legitimate oversight authority to obtain
these documents. As that letter noted, "Under Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives,
the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has legislative and oversight jurisdiction
over "[p]urchase of sites and construction of post offices, custom-houses, Federal courthouses, and
Government buildings within the District of Columbia" and "[p]ublic buildings and occupied or
improved grounds of the United States generally."3 The OPO is a Federally-owned building located
in the District of Columbia redeveloped pursuant to the Old Post Office Building Redevelopment
Act of 2008.4
Since we originally wrote to you in January 2019, GSA has made no efforts at
accommodations regarding our request for legal memos related to the leasing of the OPO Building
to the Trump International Hotel. Furthermore, your General Counsel has refused to accept
reasonable accommodations on the part of the Committee relating to access to the financial records
that would have permitted our staff to review these records "in camera" and would have provided
GSA with ample notice if we decided that the public release of this information or references to it
was necessary to fulfill the Committee's obligation to conduct appropriate oversight of GSA and
was in the public's interest.
Through these actions, your agency has engaged in a pattern of obstruction and obstinance
that is unacceptable and damaging to GSA's ability to manage taxpayer funds in a transparent
manner. We strongly encourage you to comply with this subpoena and stop placing President
Trump above the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States. If not, we look forward to
directly asking you about your refusal to comply with this subpoena at a hearing early next year so
that you can explain to us and the American public why you have chosen to abrogate your legal
responsibility.
Sincerely,

DINA TITUS
Chair
Subcommittee on Economic Development,
Public Buildings, and
Emergency Management
Rules of the House of Representatives, 116tl1 Cong. Rule X(l)(r) (2019), accessed here:
https: //mies.house.gov /sites/ democrats.rules.house.gov I files/116-1 I 116-House-Rules-Clerk.pdf.
4 Old Post Office Building Redevelopment Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-359, 122 Stat. 4005 (2008).

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 Administrator Emily Murphy
December 20, 2019
Page 3
cc:

The Honorable Sam Graves, Ranking Member
Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure
The Honorable Mark Meadows, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Economic Development,
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management

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