Oct
27
For those who have been following legislative progress around the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA), there has been a lot of activity over the past two weeks:
- On October 13, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (John Mica, R-FL, Chair) approved Jeff Denham’s CPRA bill (HR 1734) which sets up a CPR Commission focused on long-term restructuring of how the federal government manages and consolidates its real property portfolio to drive savings towards deficit reduction.
- The following day, Congressman Denham submitted a letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. It urged them to include his bill—which was approved on a bi-partisan basis—as part of their proposal to meet the $1.2 trillion deficit reduction goal outlined in the Budget Control Act of August 2011.
- Just last week, Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), posted a new entry to his blog saying that the government has already saved $1.5 billion by disposing of excess federal property and now expects to realize $3.5 billion in savings by the end of FY2012 through a combination of sales, consolidations, canceled projects, and reduced maintenance and utility costs. Furthermore, he indicated that Agencies also have identified 1,500 new pieces of property to sell.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, legislation similar to Denham’s bill has been introduced by Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA). Sen. Tom Carper, (D-DE) has indicated he also plans to introduce a bill that would push agencies to dispose of excess property and curtail long-term leasing agreements.
It seems that all sides have begun to rally around this push for better management of our federal real property portfolio. By applying some aspects of the Defense BRAC concept, it will help cut through bureaucratic red tape and remove politics from the process of shedding vacant and underutilized properties.
While on-going actions by OMB and agencies in identifying underused or unneeded properties are commendable, there are no guarantees that these properties will be readily sold or otherwise disposed. CPRA legislation can greatly improve the chances that we actually remove these assets from federal responsibility and make substantial reductions in our government’s long-term financial obligation to operate and maintain these properties. Given the fast moving circumstances and the critical need to drive down the deficit over the coming years, I believe there is a very strong chance that the Super Committee will include CPRA as part of its deficit reduction plan, due out just before Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.
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