Senate Committee OKs Five-Year Real Property Pilot Bill

By Kimberly Price

The Senate’s five-year pilot program for expedited real property disposal took a step forward in November, passing in committee by voice vote. The real question is how it will fare before the full Senate – and when that will happen.

On November 14 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved the Federal Real Property Disposal Pilot Program (S.1667), which would give the Federal government a five-year window to expedite the right-sizing of its real property inventory.

The proposed legislation was introduced this past June by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Finance Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security. Carper’s subcommittee is subordinate to the full Senate Committee on Homeland Security.

While the proposed legislation met with approval of the committee, it came just before Congress’ two-week Thanksgiving recess. With the Christmas holiday recess in sight, it is doubtful that the legislation will make it to the floor of the Senate before the next calendar year.

Nearly identical legislation was introduced in July by Representative John Duncan (R-TN). H.R. 3049 was referred to the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform upon its introduction. At press time, there was no further news of this proposed legislation’s status in the House.

Nonetheless, endorsement of the Senate legislation signals progress in the better management of federal real property issues. Also this past June, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) presented a preliminary report to Congress of Federal properties deemed most immediately eligible for expedited disposal. OMB further estimated that the Federal government has 21,000 surplus properties in its inventory.

In a prepared statement on November 14, Carper noted that the surplus represents an annual cost to taxpayers of $130 billion for maintenance and security. “That’s $130 million that could go to maintain buildings we do use or to fund more productive government programs,” Carper said.

“This pilot program will put a dent in the backlog of unneeded properties, teach us how to handle disposal in the future and bring in potentially billions of dollars to the Treasury to reduce the deficit,” he continued.

Under S.1667, OMB has the responsibility of determining up to 750 properties that can be sold or demolished over the next five years. As an incentive, 20 percent of proceeds from disposal will be returned to affected agencies, along with program administrative costs. The remaining 80 percent of proceeds will be returned to the U.S. Treasury.

The nearly identical proposals from the Senate and the House are not Congress’ first attempts at right-sizing the Federal real property inventory. In 2005, Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) introduced a similar five-year pilot program, H.R. 3134.

The proposed legislation never made it to the floor of the House. Political insiders at the time said the bill stalled because of jurisdictional disputes between lawmakers. Some parties claimed the proposal fell under government reform; others said transportation and infrastructure. The resulting debate led to the proposal’s quiet stagnation in committee.

For the full prepared statement from Senator Tom Carper regarding S.1667, visit http://carper.senate.gov/test/release.cfm?type=press&id=287477

Kimberly Price is VISTA’s Legislative Affairs Liaison. She can be reached via email at kimberly.price@vistatsi.com