WASHINGTON, DC-The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to give up its leasing authority after a House subcommittee hearing held by Rep. Jeff Denham, chairman of the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee. The topic of the hearing, which included testimony from both the SEC chairman and inspector general, concerned its recent lease at Constitution Center--a lease that included hundreds of thousands of square feet of unneeded space.

According to a statement from Chairman Denham, not only has the SEC agreed to give up its leasing authority, but many of the SEC employees may also face prosecution from the Justice Department for backdating documents that "justified" the lease. The SEC declined to comment to GlobeSt.com beyond the testimony.

Briefly last summer the agency announced it was leasing roughly 900,000 square feet of space at Constitution Center, a newly-renovated office building at 400 Seventh St., in what would be a $556-million deal. By October, however, the SEC had determined that it would not need 600,000-square feet after all, nor the 500,000 square feet that had been subject to the right of first refusal. A report (PDF) by the agency’s inspector general earlier this year took the agency to task for its decision-making leading up to the lease and concluded it may well have violated federal law by moving forward without waiting for Congressional appropriations to fund it.