Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del, introduced legislation Monday aimed at helping the federal government manage its massive real estate portfolio more efficiently, the latest in a string of efforts by the House and Senate to rein in billions of dollars in excess real estate costs.
Carper’s Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act of 2013 includes several provisions crafted to track what properties the government leases and owns, including one requiring agencies with independent leasing authority to report what space they lease in any given year. Another provision sets up a pilot program meant to spark the sale of up to 200 properties a year.
In announcing the bill, which was co-sponsored by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Carper said he believes the legislation will force the federal government to take a more realistic approach to owning and leasing property across the country.
“It’s been clear to me and to others for a long time now that we can get better results and save taxpayer money by improving the way we manage federal property,” Carper said in a statement. “Excess and underutilized federal properties cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year in maintenance, security and other costs. The good news is that we can solve this problem by taking some common sense steps to improve federal property management.”
The bill takes a markedly different tone from similar legislation moving through the House, which real estate experts say would put the General Services Administration under much more scrutiny and could slow the pace of federal leasing activity. The Senate bill appears to take a more collaborative approach and would give the GSA greater control over federal leasing.
Some of the major provisions in Carper’s bill include:
• Requiring all federal agencies to study all of their owned and leased real estate continuously and notify the GSA and Federal Real Property Council of any excess property that can be shed;
• Charging the FRPC with coming up with an annual asset management plan;
• Requiring the head of the GSA to establish and maintain a single database of all real estate owned by federal agencies, not just those within the GSA’s portfolio, and to make it available to the public at no cost within three years after the bill’s enactment;
• Requiring agencies with independent leasing authority to submit a detailed report annually on their new leasing activity over the past 12 months;
• Establishing a pilot program giving the director of the Office of Management and Budget authority to shed up to 200 properties a year, with priority on those properties with the highest market value. The GSA would be reimbursed for its costs identifying and preparing properties for sale, with 80 percent of the proceeds going to the Treasury for debt reduction, 18 percent going to the agency that owned the property and another 2 percent to fund homeless assistance grants.
