Real Property Reform Legislation

Real property legislative reform seeks to give agencies more flexibility in managing their real property portfolios, including retention of proceeds and authority to enter into alternative financing arrangements, in order to meet the challenges of:

• Deteriorating facilities
• Increasing number of excess and underperforming assets
• Limited capital investment funds
• Reliance on costly leasing
• Unreliable governmentwide data for strategic asset management

The changing missions of federal agencies and the alarming state of building deterioration (with repair costs totaling tens of billions of dollars) have made reform legislation a very critical issue. The Property Act, first passed in 1949 and codified in Title 40 on August 2002, is the major law overseeing federal property assets. It has remained unchanged over the years and is not flexible or focused enough to deal with the disposal of the government's real property inventory.

In January 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued three reports on the current state of real property, labeling it a “High-Risk” federal program. The reports assessed the long-standing problems with excess and underutilized real property, deteriorating facilities, unreliable real property data, and costly space challenges shared by agencies. 

These are some of its findings:

• The Department of Defense annually spends $3-4 billion to maintain unneeded facilities.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs annually spends $35 million to maintain vacant space.
• The Department of Energy annually spends $70 million to maintain excess space.

Learn more by reading the GAO Real Property Reports >>

1998:  GSA was tasked by the Office of Management and Budget to submit to Congress a legislative proposal that would provide asset management tools and incentives, readily available in the private sector, to federal agencies.

2000-2008:  Several attempts at governmentwide real property legislative reform have been made throughout this decade. Primarily due to Congressional Budget Office scoring rules, however, none of these bills were enacted in their respective Congresses.

2004:  President Bush signed Executive Order 13327: Federal Real Property Asset Management, which:

• Created the Federal Real Property Council (FRPC), which develops performance measures and approves agency’s asset management plans
• Established a Senior Real Property Officer (SRPO) in each agency, who creates agency asset management plans
• Tasked GSA to create and manage a centralized real property database

Learn more by exploring the Reform Legislation Library>>