H.R. 328: Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act of 2013

Introduced:
Jan 22, 2013 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)
Sponsor:
Rep. Jason Chaffetz [R-UT3]
Status:
Reported by Committee

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

The committees assigned to this bill sent it to the House or Senate as a whole for consideration on March 20, 2013.

Progress
Introduced Jan 22, 2013
Referred to Committee Jan 22, 2013
Reported by Committee Mar 20, 2013
Passed House ...
Passed Senate ...
Signed by the President ...
Prognosis

15% chance of being enacted.

Only 28% of House bills that made it past committee in 2011–2013 were enacted. [show factors | methodology]

Cosponsors
1 cosponsors (1D) (show)
Committees

House Oversight and Government Reform

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To establish a pilot program for the expedited disposal of Federal real property.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Jan 22, 2013.
23 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

1/22/2013--Introduced.
Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act of 2013 - Directs the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) to conduct the Federal Real Property Disposal Pilot Program, under which the Administrator shall:
(1) identify 15 federal government real properties that are excess or surplus and that have the highest fair market value and the greatest potential to sell, and
(2) sell such properties by public auction within 5 years after the enactment of this Act. Requires the Administrator to designate an additional property for sale under the Program not later than 15 days after the sale of any excess property.
Exempts from the Program:
(1) real property that is to be closed or realigned under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990;
(2) properties excluded for reasons of national security by OMB;
(3) certain Indian and Native Eskimo properties;
(4) properties operated and maintained by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA);
(5) postal properties;
(6) properties used in connection with river, harbor, flood control, reclamation, or power projects;
(7) properties determined to be suitable for use as a public park or recreation area; and
(8) properties used for recreational and conservation purposes.
Requires the head of each executive agency to recommend properties to the Director of OMB for disposal under the Program. Sets forth requirements for the expedited disposal of excess real property under the Program, including that such property must be sold for cash, may not be sold for less than fair market value, and must generate monetary proceeds to the federal government.
Requires the proceeds from the sale of excess properties under the Program to be deposited into the the Treasury and 2% of such proceeds to be used for funding homeless assistance grants.
Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make grants to nonprofit organizations to acquire or rehabilitate real property to provide permanent housing, transitional housing, or temporary shelter for persons who are homeless.
Directs the Administrator to:
(1) issue guidance for the development and implementation of executive agency real property plans, and
(2) assist executive agencies in the identification and disposal of excess real property.
Authorizes the Administrator to obligate funds to pay the costs of identifying and preparing properties to be reported excess by another agency.
Allows GSA to be reimbursed for the costs associated with the reversion, custody, and disposal of reverted real property.
Requires the Administrator to:
(1) take control of reverted property if necessary to enforce compliance with the terms of the conveyance and sell such property; and
(2) make such property available to state and local governments and non-profit organizations for public benefit conveyance prior to sale.
Allows the net proceeds of a sale of excess federal real property to be:
(1) returned to the agency that had custody and accountability for such property, and
(2) used for continuing disposal of excess properties and for deficit reduction.
Requires the GSA Administrator to publish a comprehensive database of all federal real property under the custody and control of all executive agencies, other than property excluded for reasons of national security, which shall be made available to other federal agencies and the general public at no cost through the GSA website.
Requires federal agencies to recycle at least 50% of construction and demolition materials and debris by the end of FY2015. Amends the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to:
(1) exempt from the homeless review process federal properties that are located in an area for which the general public is denied access in the interest of national security,
(2) allow properties available for use by the homeless to be published on the websites of HUD or GSA instead of in the Federal Register, and
(3) exclude certain federal properties from subsequent publications of properties available for use by the homeless for which no review of a determination of suitability was requested.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/113/1/hr328.

Background

According to CRS[1], in FY 2010 the government owned and maintained 77,700 buildings that were classified as either underutilized or not utilized at a cost of $1.67 billion.  There are a number of barriers to the efficient disposal of these properties, including current statutes that require the properties to first be offered to other federal agencies, then to state and local governments before being authorized to be placed on the open market.  H.R. 328 requires OMB to maintain a list of 15 federal properties, designated by OMB and GSA, which would then be allowed to skip these statutory requirements and be offered immediately for public auction.

Unlike other proposals, this bill does not set up an additional Commission to implement the program and would require no further Congressional action.

Summary

H.R. 328 requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct a Federal Real Property Disposal Pilot Program for the expedited disposal of real property that is not meeting federal government needs. The bill requires the Director, for the five years following enactment, to maintain a list of 15 federal properties which are available for immediate public auction. Within 15 days of any property disposed under the program, H.R. 328 requires the Director to designate a new property to be added, maintaining 15 properties available for sale.  The bill prohibits the Director from including any parcel of real property, building, or other structure located on real property that is to be closed or realigned under the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990.

Identical legislation, H.R. 665, passed the House in the 112th Congress by a recorded vote of 403-0 (Roll no. 114).  For further information, please click here.

Cost

There is no CBO score currently available.  However, CBO previously scored H.R. 665 in the 112th Congress, estimating that, “implementing H.R. 665 would cost $2 million over the 2012-2017 period for additional administrative and reporting costs related to property disposal, assuming the availability of appropriated funds. Enacting the bill would affect direct spending by increasing both receipts from property sales and spending of those receipts; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates, however, that any net change in direct spending would not be significant in any year. Enacting the legislation would not affect revenues.”

It should be noted that the CBO score does not account for future savings gained from the consolidation and sale of federal property.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)

Other Citations

  • 40 U.S.C. Chapter 5