	The Administration Has Taken Steps to Reform Real Property Management

Since 2012, the government has made efforts to improve real property  management. As we reported in 2016, the Office of Management and  Budget (OMB) issued government-wide guidance—the National Strategy  for the Efficient Use of Real Property— in 2015, which aligns with many of  the desirable characteristics of effective national strategies that GAO has  identified, including describing the purpose, defining the problem, and  outlining goals and objectives. We concluded that the strategy is a major  step forward that could help agencies strategically manage real property  by establishing a government-wide framework for addressing real  property challenges. Agencies Face Long- standing Challenges in Disposing of Excess and Underutilized Real Property

Despite this progress, significant challenges to managing real property in  general and excess property in particular, remain. Lack of Reliable Data: A lack of reliable data makes it difficult to  accurately measure the amount of excess property. The data used to manage the government’s real  property, the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP), are unreliable due  to challenges with the accuracy and consistency of data reported by  federal agencies. However, we found in 2011 that this process can be  challenging for federal agencies. We found in 2012 that—in  addition to Congress, OMB, and real property holding agencies— several other stakeholders have an interest in how the federal  government carries out its real property acquisition, management, and  disposal practices. Limited Accessibility of Federal Properties: As we found in 2012, the  locations of some federal properties can make property disposal  difficult. However, we have reported on  some vacant properties in the Washington, D.C., area that illustrate the  challenges associated with disposing of or repurposing vacant property. As discussed below, we made  recommendations for addressing these issues. GSA Warehouses: In 2014, we found that some GSA warehouses  listed in FRPP as utilized had been vacant for as long as 10 years. Implementing GAO Recommendations Could Address Challenges Related to Excess and Underutilized Property

In recent years, we have made recommendations to GSA and other  federal agencies that, if implemented, would increase the federal  government’s capacity to manage its portfolio and document any  progress of reform efforts. The Comptroller General highlighted our  highest-priority recommendations to GSA in an August 1, 2016, letter to  the GSA Administrator. Of the six open recommendations, the letter  included the following three related to excess and underutilized property  In April 2016, we recommended that, to improve the quality and  transparency of FRPP data, GSA, along with OMB and federal  agencies, (1) assess the reliability of the data by determining how  individual agencies collect and report data for each field, (2) analyze  the differences in collecting and reporting practices used by these  agencies, and (3) identify and make available to users the limitations  of using FRPP data. Finally, several real property reform bills have been introduced in  Congress that could address the long-standing problem of federal excess  and underutilized property. For example, the Federal Assets Sale and  Transfer Act of 2016 could help address stakeholder influence by  establishing a Public Buildings Reform Board to identify opportunities for  the federal government to significantly reduce its inventory of civilian real  property and reduce its costs. Although both bills have passed the House of  Representatives, neither one has been enacted yet.
Why GAO Did This Study

In 2003, GAO added “Federal Real Property” to GAO's biennial High-Risk list, in part, due to long-standing challenges federal agencies face in managing federally owned real property, including disposal of excess and underutilized property. Continuing to maintain these unneeded facilities puts the government at risk for wasting resources due to ongoing maintenance costs as well as lost revenue from failing to sell excess property. Despite implementing policies and systems that may help federal agencies manage real property, the federal government continues to maintain excess and underutilized property. In fiscal year 2015, federal agencies reported over 7,000 excess or underutilized real property assets.
This testimony addresses (1) efforts by the federal government to address excess and underutilized properties since 2012, (2) long-standing challenges to managing and disposing of federal real property and (3) potential solutions to address these long-standing challenges.
This statement summarizes the results of a number of previous GAO reports on real property utilization and management that were issued from 2011 through 2016. GAO also included some updates based on follow-up, conducted on the status of GAO's recommendations in 2015 and 2016.

What GAO Found

Since 2012, the administration has taken steps to reform real property management and address the long-standing challenge of reducing excess and underutilized property. For example, in 2015, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued government-wide guidance—the National Strategy for the Efficient Use of Real Property—which GAO found in 2016 could help agencies strategically manage real property.
However, GAO's work has found that significant challenges persist in managing real property in general and excess and underutilized property in particular. They include:
a lack of reliable data with which to measure the extent of the problem,
a complex disposal process,
costly environmental requirements,
competing stakeholder interests, and
limited accessibility of some federal properties.
Properties in the Washington, D.C., area such as the Cotton Annex building, vacant General Services Administration (GSA) warehouses, and buildings on the St. Elizabeths campus (pictured below) illustrate the challenges for disposal and re-utilization of vacant federal buildings. For example, GAO found in 2014 that real property data indicated some GSA warehouses were utilized when they had been vacant for as long as 10 years.
In addition to the steps already taken by the administration, further action by federal agencies to implement GAO's previous recommendations could help to address some of these challenges. For example, GAO has made recommendations to GSA and other federal agencies that, if implemented, would increase the federal government's capacity to manage its portfolio and document the progress of reform efforts. GAO highlighted its highest priority open recommendations to GSA in an August 2016 letter to GSA. Among those are three recommendations related to excess and underutilized property, including a recommendation to assess the reliability of data collected and entered into GSA's Federal Real Property Profile database by individual federal agencies. Additionally, real property reform bills that could address the long-standing problem of federal excess and underutilized property have been introduced in Congress. Specifically, two bills have been passed by the House of Representatives in 2016, but neither has been enacted yet.