United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-07-31 monographic deposited born digital 77 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-805 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805 P0b002ee18038bc73 f:d01805 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805 GAO-01-805 Cost effectiveness analysis Federal facility relocation Rural economic development Site selection Other Written Product A01498 This report reviews the types of federal functions that lend themselves to being performed at locations other than Washington, D.C., and federal regional cities. There are concerns that federal agencies may not have been considering locating facilities in rural areas, as required by the Rural Development Act of 1972 (RDA), particularly in light of recent advances in telecommunications technology. GAO found that since its 1990 report (GGD-90-109) on this issue, federal agencies continue to locate for the most part in higher cost, urban areas. Eight of the 13 cabinet agencies surveyed had no formal RDA siting policy, and there was little evidence that agencies considered RDA's requirements when siting new federal facilities. Further, GSA has not developed for congressional consideration a cost-conscious, governmentwide location policy, as recommended by GAO in 1990. In GAO's survey, the sites that involved relocated operations still largely remained in urban areas, while the sites that involved newly established operations were more evenly spread over the rural and urban areas. Federal agencies' mission requirements, such as the need to be near clients or other organizations, apparently have led them to select urban areas. GAO found that government functions, such as research and development, data processing, accounting and finance, and teleservice centers, can be located in rural areas. Although it is not clear from the information GAO collected whether any of the federal agencies that located sites in urban areas could have located them in rural areas, one matter that is clear is that RDA has not had the influence on federal siting practices that Congress appears to have intended when RDA was enacted. Many agencies had no RDA policy, as required by the act, and many agency personnel in GAO's survey either did not consider RDA or did not know whether the act was used in making their site selection. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805.pdf GAO-01-805 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-805 Other Written Product GAO-01-805; Facilities Location: Agencies Should Pay More Attention to Costs and Rural Development Act; Cost effectiveness analysis Federal facility relocation Rural economic development Site selection Volume 110 Page 888 110 Stat. 888 Public Law 104-127 Public Law 106-208