The House of Representatives approved bipartisan legislation on Monday that was introduced by U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) to promote selling or redeveloping underused federal properties.
The Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act, H.R. 4465, would establish a Public Buildings Reform Board to identify opportunities to make recommendations on the sale of up to $8 billion in underutilized or vacant federal properties.
“Given our trillion dollar deficit and skyrocketing debt we must examine every area of government and look for ways to cut spending,” Denham said. “This bill is a bipartisan solution to a three billion dollar problem. By selling and consolidating unneeded and underutilized federal property we can save taxpayer dollars and revitalize communities in the process.”
Under the bill, the General Services Administration (GSA) would be directed to establish a database of all federal properties. The database would identify properties that are excess, surplus, underutilized or unutilized.
U.S. Reps Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Bill Shuster (R-PA) were cosponsors of the bill.
“Much of the real property owned or leased by the federal government is unneeded, unnecessary or impractical,” Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said.
Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that poor management of federal buildings and agency office space has wasted taxpayers’ money for years, and that the bill would “help cut through the red tape in the processes for managing, utilizing, consolidating and disposing of federal property.”