Goal of Improving Federal Property Management Unites Disparate Senators

Following years of partisan tensions over the General Services Administration’s effectiveness in property management, a bipartisan group of senators came together on a major committee Wednesday to advance a bill to accelerate and create new efficiencies in the process.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously approved the Federal Property Management Reform Act (S. 2509)  introduced by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., to establish a framework for agencies to better manage existing space in a more cost-effective manner and help facilitate the disposal of unneeded federal property.

“The federal government’s property portfolio has been labeled ‘high risk’ by the Government Accountability Office for far too long,” said Carper, who introduced the plan on Feb. 4. “This legislation would require federal agencies to account for their properties and help the government get a handle on its vast assets.”

The bill would require agencies to maintain an up-to-date inventory of the property they own, incentivize them to dispose of excess property by allowing them to retain and reinvest sale proceeds and establish a Federal Property Council to develop uniform guidance for agency property managers to follow and share best practices in property management among agencies. It also would codify the broader management framework of the Obama administration’s National Strategy for the Efficient Use of Real Property, to make those actions into a permanent framework for agency property management, the senators said. 

“I’m pleased that our bill that will save taxpayers millions and make the government more efficient has advanced in the Senate,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a co-sponsor. “It includes common sense measures to help see that the government moves surplus properties off the books.”

Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma added, “This committee continues to report out legislation that would ensure greater transparency and efficiency of federal government resources.” The bill is “needed to enhance federal property management practices and to provide incentives for agencies to remove unneeded property from the taxpayer dole.”

Real property management has been on the GAO high-risk list and the administration’s efficiency agenda for years, but Congress and the White House have never agreed on where the power for final decisions should lie.