The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved a bill on Wednesday that was introduced by U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) to eliminate unused and underused federal properties.
Under the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer (FAST) Act, H.R. 4465, an independent board would be established to report on vacant and underused federal properties that could be sold or consolidated.
“Today, we have an alarming number of federal properties standing empty or being under-utilized,” Denham said. “This bill is common sense, it’s bipartisan and it’s good government. It will save us billions. This has been a priority of mine for many years and I am glad to see such clear support on both sides of the aisle.”
The government owns more than 254,000 buildings, with 77,000 of them underused, according to a recent Federal Real Property Summary. It costs taxpayers $1.7 billion to maintain those underused federal properties each year.
The FAST Act would establish the Public Buildings Reform Board to identify $8 billion in federal properties that could be sold or consolidated over a six-year period. After that, the board would be dissolved and federal agencies would have six years to implement the board’s recommendations.
The General Services Administration would also be directed to establish and maintain a database of all federal properties under the bill.
“Unused and under-utilized federal properties have been draining on our economy for years,” Denham said when he introduced the bill. “My bill will save us billions by cutting through red tape to change the poorly-managed property management system so that taxpayers no longer have to foot the bill for keeping the lights on in empty buildings.”