Federal Transfer

In order to identify properties that agencies no longer need, each agency is required to conduct an annual survey of its real property holdings. Generally, sponsoring agencies have expertise in the policy areas they sponsor. In FY2009, the government held more than 10,000 excess buildings with total operating costs of $134 million. Disposal Costs

Unneeded buildings are often among the older properties in an agency's portfolio. The Department of the Interior has said that it can be stymied by the competing concerns of local and state governments, historic preservation offices, and other political factors, when attempting to dispose of some of its unneeded real property. Availability and Quality of Real Property Data

The Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) is the government's most comprehensive source of information about real property under the control of executive branch agencies. The FRPP contains, for example, the number of excess properties held by each agency and the annual operating costs of those properties—issues about which Congress has expressed ongoing interest—but the summary report only provides the number and annual operating costs of disposed assets, thereby providing the "good news" of future costs avoided through disposition while omitting the "bad news" of the ongoing operating costs associated with unneeded properties the government maintained. 1205: Federal Real Property Disposal Enhancement Act

H.R. 1205 includes several major provisions that would increase the real property data available to Congress, beyond those already discussed. 665: Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act41

H.R. 1734: Civilian Property Realignment Act

H.R. Table 1 , below, outlines how each proposal would address the four obstacles to expediting real property disposition discussed in this report: budgetary disincentives, administrative burden, stakeholder conflict, and lack of access to comprehensive, accurate data. By reinvesting in disposal, agencies could further reduce their inventories of unneeded properties and the costs associated with maintaining them. As a consequence, the usefulness of the database as an oversight tool might be limited by the inaccuracy or incompleteness of the data. 1205 for reinvestment in their real property portfolios. Stakeholder conflict may be reduced by establishing an independent apparatus for making real property disposal decisions, similar to the process by which the Department of Defense disposes of property under the Base Realignment Closure Act.
Federal executive branch agencies hold an extensive real property portfolio that includes 429,000 buildings. These assets have been acquired over a period of decades to help agencies fulfill their diverse missions. Agencies hold buildings with a range of uses, including offices, health clinics, warehouses, and laboratories. As agencies' missions change over time, so, too, do their real property needs, thereby rendering some assets less useful or unneeded altogether. Healthcare provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for example, has shifted in recent decades from predominately hospital-based inpatient care to a greater reliance on clinics and outpatient care, with a resulting change in space needs. Similarly, the Department of Defense (DOD) reduced its force structure by 36% after the cold war ended, and has engaged in several rounds of base realignments and installation closures.
Real property disposition is the process by which federal agencies identify and then transfer, donate, or sell real property they no longer need. Disposition is an important asset management function because the costs of maintaining unneeded properties can be substantial, consuming financial resources that might be applied to pressing real property needs, such as repairing existing facilities, or towards other pressing policy issues, such as reducing the national debt.
In FY2009—the most recent data available—the government held 10,327 unneeded buildings and spent $134 million dollars to maintain them. Agencies have said that their disposal efforts are often hampered by legal and budgetary disincentives, and competing stakeholder interests. In addition, Congress is limited in its capacity to conduct oversight of the disposal process because it lacks access to reliable, comprehensive, real property data. The government's inability to efficiently dispose of its unneeded property is a major reason that federal real property management has been identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as a "high-risk" area since 2003.
This report begins with an explanation of the real property disposal process, and then discusses some of the factors that have made disposition relatively inefficient and costly. It then examines three bills introduced in the 112th Congress that would address those problems: the Federal Real Property Disposal Enhancement Act (H.R. 1205), the Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act (H.R. 665), and the Civilian Property Realignment Act (H.R. 1734). This report concludes with a discussion of policy options for enhancing both the disposal process and congressional oversight of it.