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Federal Office Building, Bethesda, Maryland to some extent motivated by the potential opportunity to be chosen as the auction house to sell the properties, but even more importantly, as American citizens and as taxpayers, we have the right to demand our elected officials clean this up and become better stewards of our money." Dennison and Rowell made seven trips to Washington, D.C., spent hours on the phone, and shot off countless emails to draw attention to the government's costly stockpile of empty buildings and outdated operational facilities, with hopes of ultimately inciting action from lawmakers. "The general public doesn't know about these issues," Dennison said. Over the past two years, Dennison and Rowell have met one-on-one with four representatives and a senator. They've sat with staff from the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and they've met with the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and GSA. At the same time, these same policymakers have been holed up on Capitol Hill drafting budget proposals, crossing line items off the government's expense ledger, and performing cost analysis of various strategies, all to try and get a handle on the nation's $16 trillion debt with little notice paid to the billions of dollars being sent out the door to maintain empty and abandoned properties the government doesn't plan to repurpose. The Republican members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, led by committee ranking member John L. Mica (R-Florida), put out a report in October 2010 titled "Sitting on Our Assets: The Federal Government's Misuse of Taxpayer-Owned Assets." "Particularly when facing difficult financial challenges in our nation, it is vital that Congress focus its attention on saving our limited taxpayer resources and wisely using federal assets," the report stated. The committee members' report cites a statement from Congressional Research Services, saying, "Disposition is an important asset management function because the costs of maintaining unneeded properties can be 64 Department of Transportation (DOT) Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Federal Courthouse, Miami, Florida substantial, consuming billions of dollars that might be applied to pressing real property needs, such as acquiring new space and repairing existing facilities, or to other policy issues, such as reducing the national debt." Disposing of unneeded property not only has the potential of producing proceeds for the federal government, but it also saves funds by avoiding future operating costs of maintaining and securing the unneeded asset, according to Rep. Mica. "To the credit of the GSA," Dennison noted, "they are now working out a deal to lease out the old D.C. Post Office and have begun to explore disposition strategies for several properties where Rep. Denham and other subcommittee members held field hearings last year." Commenting on this issue, Rep. William H. Long (R-Missouri), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said, "We must work together to get these properties sold. We need to get these properties in the hands of the private sector and take the burden off the American taxpayer." Long, who is a former real estate broker and auctioneer himself, added that it's important "to have local real estate agents and local auction firms involved in the process … to get the highest dollar possible" from the sales of these properties. Rowell says the government and its selling agent should also weigh the pros and cons of bulk sales versus individual property transactions to ensure the assets yield the highest purchase price. "We are hoping these properties will not be sold in bulk," he said. "Bulk purchases are fast but rarely achieve top market dollar. Additionally, they eliminate the nearby property owner who may be interested in the abandoned asset for purposes that would benefit the local community." Citing the extreme costs associated with poor asset management given the size of federal real estate holdings and referencing "excess and underutilized property" and "deteriorating and aging facilities," in 2003, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) placed real property management on its list of "high risk" government activities. GAO said at the time that the government's asset management "reflects an infrastructure based on the business model and technological environment of the 1950s." Real property management remains on the list of "high-risk" government activities still today, more than 10 years later. Slow Disposal Last year, Rep. Jeff Denham (R-California), chairman of the House Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee, introduced the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA), H.R. 1734. The bill, which establishes a commission to review federal properties and make recommendations for reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and saving taxpayers' money, passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin but never made it past committee in the Senate. Rep. Denham has reintroduced his bill in the 113th Congress. Just last month, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed the Excess Federal Building and Property Disposal Act, H.R. 328, sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). H.R. 328 would create a pilot program managed by the OMB and GSA to dispose of unneeded federal properties through public auctions, with 100 percent of the net proceeds returned to Treasury for debt reduction. The bill also aims to increase transparency, remove red tape, and raise the level of accountability among federal agencies with the creation of an online database of all property owned by the government. According to the report authored by Rep. Mica and his colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, there are a number of reasons why federal agencies may be sluggish in their disposition of unneeded assets. Legal and regulatory requirements may serve as a hindrance to disposition in some instances. As an example, the report points out federal agencies are required to pay for corrective actions to address environmental, repair, and maintenance issues prior to disposal. In addition, a structure must be screened for any other public uses or benefits before it can be cleared for sale as a "surplus" property.

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