Carper will introduce legislation to shed excess federal properties

A top Senate Democrat plans to introduce legislation within the next several weeks that will offer a slightly different way for the federal government to shed excess property and raise money to reduce the debt. 

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security, said he will move forward with a bill soon, following Tuesday's passage of a House measure that would create a commission to select underused or excess federal property to sell, and send savings to the Treasury.  

"I appreciate that the House is moving forward with efforts to curb the amount of unnecessary federal property and improve the federal leasing process so that it is more cost-effective," Carper told The Hill. 

"We share the same goal of better utilizing scarce taxpayer dollars, though I prefer an approach that differs in some respects," he said. 

"I hope to introduce legislation to address this issue in the coming weeks." 

Carper hasn't provided any details yet on his legislation. Last summer he and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) asked federal agencies to provide details on their property management overhaul efforts, including properties previously identified as excess or underutilized, properties previously sold as well as any plan for reducing the costs of owned and leased property.

The House bill is modeled after a White House proposal — bill sponsor Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and the Obama administration have worked together since last spring on the measure — that would expedite the shedding of excess properties weighing on the federal government's balance sheet. 

The legislation will "shrink the federal real property footprint and save billions of taxpayer dollars by selling what we don't need and better utilizing what we keep,” Denham said in a statement. 

The White House said Monday that is has a few problems with the final House-passed measure, specifically language that exempts large categories of property from the bill, as well as a provision that requires Congress to approve recommendations to sell property made by a nine-member civilian version of the Defense Department's Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

The measure "does not go far enough in empowering the commission to ensure that unneeded properties are moved off the Federal books," the White House said in a Statement of Administration Policy. 

"This approach is inconsistent with the administration's proposed procedural model for real estate disposal that proved effective under BRAC in overcoming the competing stakeholder interests that have historically slowed progress in this area," the SAP said. 

The bill could generate upward of $15 billion in savings over several years for debt reduction although the Congressional Budget Office has said that those estimates are well above their projections. 

The CBO determined in a report last summer that the administration's proposal could increase direct spending by $60 million over 10 years and could increase discretionary spending by $420 million over five years.

During debate on Monday, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) argued that the bill requires $62 million for the commission that Republicans have not accounted for with cuts to other programs. Denham said that money will be set aside by a future Congress, and that the anticipated sale of $500 million worth of properties, expected within the first 180 days after the commission is set up, will more than make up for that cost.

The federal government owns and operates more than 1.2 million buildings costing about $20 billion a year to operate.        

The administration also opposes stripping all federal agencies of their authority to sign leases and allowing only the General Services Administration with lease-signing authority, likely burdening GSA. 

The administration opposes zeroing out the authorization for General Services Administration new construction budget for this year.