The House-passed budget outline for the upcoming fiscal year endorses a recommendation from the Simpson-Bowles debt-reduction group calling for stepped-up sales of underused or unused federal properties. It says the federal government owns, leases, or manages 1.1 million properties nationwide. Of those, non-defense buildings accounted for at least 400,000 of the total.
A report on the bill says the federal real property inventory" is so massive that the report accounting for it lags two years behind the current budget year. With such large timing differences and accompanying confusion, there is very little incentive for agencies to dispose of unneeded properties and very few repercussions from holding onto these properties indefinitely."
"In 2009, federal agencies received only about $50 million in proceeds from the sale of 2,228 assets—an average of $22,500 per property. Many buildings were simply given away as below-market value bargains or even for free. On top of that, agencies reported spending $150 million in 2009 on the operating costs alone of unneeded properties waiting to either be sold or disposed," it says.
Numerous initiatives from OMB and legislative proposals have sought to spur sales of excess property by setting targets and holding agencies more accountable.
