Florida’s John Mica Leading Fight Against ‘Billions’ Wasted from 78,000 Unused Federal Properties

One of Florida’s most conservative U.S. congressmen is leading the charge against what he says are billions of dollars wasted by the federal government to maintain excess, underutilized, and vacant properties throughout the country. Several of them are in Florida.

“The federal government needs to stop sitting on its assets,” U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., tells Sunshine State News, alluding to the title of a report he co-authored in 2010 when he sat on the U.S. House’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. “There’s a good deal of property sitting there, just sort of rotting, and the taxpayers are taking it in the wallet.”

Mica, who now chairs the Subcommittee on Government Operations, refers to an estimated 77,700 properties designated “vacant or underutilized” by the federal government, which spends about $1.67 billion to maintain them annually. The North Central Florida congressman says the costs of government negligence might actually number in the billions of dollars, when one takes into account all the untapped revenue the federal government is missing out on by not selling or leasing its unused real estate.