As she prepares to leave her post as administrator of the General Services Administration next week, Robin Carnahan is reflecting on leading an agency that a Missourian established roughly 75 years ago.
President Joe Biden appointed Carnahan, who served two terms as Missouri’s secretary of state, to lead the General Services Administration in 2021. The Rolla native said in an interview on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air that President Harry Truman established the GSA in 1949 as a way for a growing federal government to work better.
“And that still is the mission that we follow today,” Carnahan said. “So for me, it's just been terrific to be able to do that. Because that's what I'm all about: How do we make our government work better for us, make it better, faster, cheaper? And that way we're delivering for the people we serve.”
Carnahan will be departing as administrator after President-elect Donald Trump returns to office next week. One of the reasons she said that her transition to being administrator was relatively seamless is that she worked in the GSA from 2016 through 2020, focusing primarily on enhancing technological infrastructure within local and state governments.
Her agency later played a role in implementing elements of Biden’s 2021 infrastructure improvement plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. That included allocating money from the infrastructure bill to revamp the country’s border crossings — including making it easier for federal officials to catch people sneaking drugs into the country.
“So we're in the middle of a lot of those projects right now,” Carnahan said.
The Inflation Reduction Act also contains funding to make federal government buildings more environmentally friendly. She dubbed those projects a “triple win.”
“They're good for American jobs and innovation,” Carnahan said. “They're great for saving money for taxpayers. Because particularly when you lower energy costs, you’re saving money. And they're great for the environment in our communities. So, I'm super proud of the work that we've done there all across the country.”
That’s not to say Carnahan’s tenure as GSA administration was stress free. Her agency often had to deal with a Congress in a chronic state of gridlock. And her agency sometimes faced pushback when it tried to shut down federal buildings.
“That all takes a lot of conversation and negotiation and working with local communities to make sure these government facilities in the middle, or often in centers of cities, are actually productive in those cities,” Carnahan said. “In some cases, if we need to downsize, those become municipal or state assets that they use. Other times we sell them, and they can become housing.”
Artificial intelligence technology
Carnahan served as GSA administrator at a time when artificial intelligence technology became more widespread.
She said there's an opportunity to especially use AI to streamline federal government procurement, since agencies spend around $100 billion a year buying goods and services.
“When I think about AI, it means lots of different things, but a lot of it is about data,” Carnahan said. “How do you use these large language models and all of this data to actually provide you better insights in how you're doing your work?”
Carnahan pointed out a significant amount of the data that could be put inside an AI service comes from governmental sources. And her agency put out a guide to federal government workers on the best practices toward incorporating AI into public services.
“It seems kind of wonky to think about, but all of these tools have to be bought by somebody who is a procurement officer — whose job it is to buy technology tools for the government,” Carnahan said. “And so what we're trying to do is lay out a lot of the trade-offs and things that people should think about as they use these tools. But it's really super exciting, and we have lots of deployment going on within GSA and across the government to make things work better.”
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
