More than $500 million in stimulus funding has been earmarked for a new data center for the Social Security Administration, but the project is six months behind schedule due to debates about the site selection process the agency has used to choose between two candidate sites in Maryland for the 300,000- square-foot facility, NextGov reports.
In April, government auditors expressed concern that the site selection process had not given enough consideration to the cost of electric power. By August, it appeared choices had been narrowed to Urbana, MD and Woodlawn, MD, not far from the existing site for the agency’s primary data center on a campus in Woodlawn.
A decision on a location was scheduled to be made this month. But NextGov reports that Sen. Charles Grassley, a ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has raised questions about the SSA’s decision to buy new land for the facility rather than finding space for it on the agency’s existing Woodlawn campus.
SSA says the agency “remains troubled about the growing risk of structural problems in its old building,” and continues to work closely with GSA, Congress and the administration to move the project forward. Barring a reveral, the agency hopes to buy land for the new facility by December.
