The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has crafted and then quickly passed another in a string of legislative initiatives to compel faster and fuller action to reduce the federal government’s real estate footprint.
The bipartisan bill, S-2375, aims to sell off unneeded facilities and reduce the use of leased space by consolidating under-used space and field office operations, in turn reducing overhead costs related to them.
It would create a Federal Real Property Reform Board whose members would be appointed by the President and congressional leaders, which each year would issue a report on all properties that agencies own, lease or control, along with their condition, their usage rate and more. It would recommend any that could be sold or otherwise disposed of. Recommendations would go to OMB and Congress.
The measure would require that at least $500 million in unneeded properties be disposed of as an initial step, with proceeds used to support costs of more disposals.
Certain facilities would be excluded for defense or national security reasons.
