A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the 66 old federal courthouses that GAO reviewed, the General Services Administration (GSA) retained 40, disposed of 25, and is in the process of disposing of another. Of the retained old courthouses, the judiciary occupies 30 of them, 25 as the main tenant, most commonly with the district and bankruptcy courts. When determining whether to retain and reuse or to dispose of old courthouses, GSA considers, among other things, a building's condition, the local real estate market, and the existing and projected base of federal tenants. GSA officials said that after the judiciary moves to new courthouses, old courthouses often require renovations to be reused. Moreover, GSA officials said that it can be challenging to find new tenants for old courthouses due to the buildings' condition and needed renovations, among other reasons. Among the retained old courthouses GAO reviewed, excluding one building that was under major renovation, about 14 percent of the total space (nearly 1-million square feet) in them was vacant as of May 2013--significantly higher than the 4.8 percent overall vacant space in federally-owned buildings in 2012."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Spending reductions under sequestration affected DOD’s civilian workforce and many programs and functions, and required DOD to accept some risk in maintaining the readiness of military forces. However, DOD was able to mitigate some near-term effects of sequestration on its mission. Reduced spending levels required DOD to take actions such as furloughing most civilian employees for 6 days, cancelling or curtailing training for units that were not preparing to deploy by early in 2014, postponing some planned equipment maintenance at its depots and repairs or renovations of facilities, reducing some weapon system quantities or deferring modifications, and delaying system development and testing. DOD took various actions to plan for and implement sequestration, such as issuing guidance and establishing processes to identify priorities and evaluate alternatives for spending reductions. Generally, DOD’s approach to sequestration was a short-term response focused on addressing the immediate funding reductions for fiscal year 2013. DOD was able to reduce spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 without making permanent changes, such as adjusting the size of its forces or canceling weapon systems programs. By setting priorities for funding and using available prior …