Thousands of federal buildings sit empty across the country, costing taxpayers $1.6 billion every year in maintenance, but the government agency that oversees them doesn’t even have a timeline for putting the buildings to good use. An arduous process tangled with bureaucratic rules slows the sale and transfer of unused buildings, according to David Wise, physical infrastructure director for the Government Accountability Office. He told the House Subcommittee on Government Operations that various agencies have different rules for unused property, and without a time frame to force expediency, the process routinely takes years. The federal government owns or leases about...