President Trump Nominates Emily Murphy As GSA Administrator
UPDATE: The White House announced the nomination of Emily Murphy as GSA Administrator at 8 p.m. ET on Sept. 1. The story below is an updated version of a story Bisnow first reported at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 1.
President Donald Trump Friday nominated Emily Murphy as the next administrator of the General Services Administration, the department that controls all federal procurement and real estate.
Since Trump's inauguration, Murphy has served as senior adviser to Acting Administrator Timothy Horne, and she worked as White House liaison during the GSA's transition.
Murphy's new post was announced in a slew of nominations Friday evening, along with a new NASA administrator, new ambassadors and other government posts. Bisnow first reported the news of her nomination.
Previously, Murphy served as the GSA's chief acquisition officer between 2005 and 2007, according to her LinkedIn profile. She then worked in the private sector for TerreStar Corp. until 2011. Between 2011 and 2016 she worked as a staffer for the House Committee on Small Business, before joining the Armed Services Committee in May 2016.
The nomination comes more than seven months after Trump's inauguration, when Horne replaced previous administrator Denise Turner Roth, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
The administrator oversees both the Federal Acquisitions Service, which buys supplies and materials for all government agencies, and the Public Building Services, which controls all of the government’s owned and leased real estate. In August, Trump appointed Dan Mathews, another former congressional staffer, as Public Buildings Commissioner.
In the last two weeks alone, Mathews’ department has awarded more than 1M SF of headquarters leases, moving the Transportation Security Administration from Arlington to Springfield, Virginia, and consolidating the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services agency in Prince George’s County.
The GSA also oversees the Old Post Office building lease with the Trump Organization for the Trump International Hotel, which has been at the center of lawsuits and ethics complaints since the inauguration.
