Norman Dong Takes Leave From GSA On Eve Of FBI Decision
Amid a period of uncertainty at the General Services Administration, which has yet to have a permanent administrator named as it faces incoming heat related to its Old Post Office Building lease with the Trump Organization, the agency is losing one of its top career officials.
Norman Dong, who led the GSA's public building service and oversaw the Old Post Office arrangement with the Trump Organization as well as the government's real estate dealings across the country, is leaving to join a private business association, the Washington Post reports.
Dong will join the Federal City Council — on loan from the GSA, and still receiving checks from the federal government, according to the Washington Business Journal — an association focused on DC projects and policies formed by former Mayor Anthony Williams. He will start his new post in April, the WBJ reports, and will only handle matters not relating to the GSA.
Dong has served as Public Buildings Commissioner since 2014. He was named acting GSA administrator by outgoing head Denise Turner Roth when Donald Trump took office, but he was replaced later that day when Trump put Timothy Horne in the position, according to the Post.
The biggest decisions still looming over the GSA could now be made by officials who worked for Dong — PBS deputy commissioner Michael Gelber will serve as acting commissioner — or by a Donald Trump appointee. Among the firms bidding in those decisions, chief among them the $2B-plus FBI headquarters, expected to be announced this month, are firms owned by known associates of Trump, such as Vornado, controlled by Steve Roth, and Silverstein Properties.
