President Obama has signed into law (P.L. 114-318) the Federal Property Management Reform Act, which codifies the Federal Real Property Council consisting of the senior property officers of each agency and headed by OMB.
The law tasks the council to “better manage property and assets of the federal government” and reduce operations, maintenance and security costs. This is to include developing utilization rates for different categories of space consistent with nongovernmental space use rates; developing a strategy to reduce the reliance on leased space for long-term needs if ownership would be less costly; compiling a list of agency field offices suitable for collocation with other offices; and researching best practices regarding the use of public-private partnerships to manage properties, among other responsibilities.
The measure further requires U.S. Postal Service to better manage property and to consider collocating other agencies at its facilities and adds new considerations for leasing facilities.
Each year USPS is to make a list of its properties with space available that could be used by federal agencies, which is to be provided to Congress and to each individual agency. Agencies then in turn are to review the list for possible matches with its own space needs and “recommend collocation if appropriate.” If the agency and USPS agree they are to work together to establish terms of a lease.
