Sunday, May 10, 2009
Lighthouse for sale, location: Atlantic Ocean
The federal government currently sits on more than 65,000 properties, valued at $84 billion, which are of little use, so President Barack Obama thinks it is time to give agencies some incentive to unload their real estate. The current 2010 budget includes a provision that would allow federal offices to dispose of excess property and use the profits to maintain their other holdings.
Currently, the U.S. government requires all sales of federal properties to go back into the general treasury, which hasn’t given individual agencies must incentive to get rid of their unused or underused real estate. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) tried unsuccessfully to add an amendment to housing legislation that would have allowed agencies to keep only 20% of their profits from real property sales. There have been several attempts since 2000 to overhaul the government’s federal real property asset management system, but without success. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the annual operating budget of unneeded properties is estimated to be $1.6 billion.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Administration Renews Effort to Dispose of Excess Property (by Robert Brodsky, Government Executive)
Current Properties for Sale (U.S. General Services Administration)
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