Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of legislation I have authored to help reduce the size of the Federal footprint.
I first would like to thank Chairman Shuster and Chairman Barletta for their ongoing support in this effort, as well as Ranking Member DeFazio and Ranking Member Carson for their help also.
This is truly a bipartisan bill. It is a bill that has garnered a lot of support because we have worked with both sides of the aisle, as well as with groups that have a vested interest in making sure that this happens correctly.
I also thank Chairman Chaffetz and Ranking Member Cummings of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for working to bridge the differences between our two committees.
Given our trillion-dollar deficit and skyrocketing debt, we have to examine every area of government and look for ways to continue to cut spending. This bill has taken 5 years in the making. It was one of the first actions when I, as a chair of this subcommittee, initially, we held a hearing in the Old Post Office in D.C. It was a January morning with freezing temperatures. We went in to show that this vacant building was sitting there and could be revitalized. Now we are going to see that building not only reopen as a hotel and retail space, but it is going to generate millions in profits for the Federal Government.
We continued to hold hearings like this in abandoned buildings all across the country, ones that were neglected, underutilized buildings, just to highlight the failed state of failed property management. We were successful in pressuring GSA in selling the long vacant Georgetown West Heating Plant. That netted $20 million to the American taxpayer. Sadly, this has got to be done across the entire country.
Every year since 2003, GAO, the Government Accountability Office, has found that the Federal Government fails to manage hundreds of thousands of buildings across the entire country. According to the GAO, the Federal Government continues to maintain too much excess and underutilized property, relies too heavily on costly leased space, and maintains unreliable and misleading real property lists. The GAO agrees and has stated before this committee that legislation like the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act would go a long way toward fixing the problems with Federal real property.
The President has also continued to support reforms to Federal real estate since speaking on it in his 2011 State of the Union. He has included it in his budget since then, and I am also pleased to have secured the commitment of this administration to advance legislation and work with myself and Chairman Chaffetz to see real reforms signed into law. Additionally, both Houses of Congress have included this idea in their annual budget documents.
I believe that we have the potential to save billions of dollars in real estate property. To be successful, this board will need to consolidate the Federal footprint, house more Federal employees in less overall space, reduce our reliance on costly lease space, sell or redevelop high-value assets that are underutilized, and dispose of surplus property much, much quicker. This bill creates an environment that will achieve these goals and creates a reliable and comprehensive real property database so the public can actually see government's progress.
Additionally, as I said, we worked with other groups. One of those was dealing with the McKinney-Vento Act to better facilitate access to unneeded Federal real property to serve our Nation's homeless population. I am proud that these changes have led to the endorsement of this legislation by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. I am pleased to work with the Law Center throughout this process and look forward to continuing to work with them to address our Nation's most vulnerable citizens.
Again, this is a good bill. This has been done in a bipartisan fashion, and it is going to save billions of dollars for the taxpayer.
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