Wasteland: Taxpayers Losing Billions on Empty Federal Buildings

(courtesy Peretz Partensky

Even though sequestration triggered across-the-board spending cuts (which many exaggerated would bring about the end of the world), there is still a great deal of room for more cuts at many agencies and to many programs. One of the most blatant examples that continues to plague the government are the number of vacant buildings that the government is paying more than a billion dollars to keep regardless of the fact that nobody has been using them for quite some time. A report from Big Government revealed that taxpayers are on the hook for $8 billion with vacant and unused properties.

The federal government blames red tape and various other legalities for the excess properties.  In fact, it is this same red tape that is preventing them from making the empty buildings available for sale. Kristen Hinman at Bloomberg writes that in order to be able to sell a property, the government must first “offer them for free to ‘homeless-services providers’, in turn forgoing any sales’ proceeds.” Though this may seem well-intentioned, the simple fact is that most of these buildings are not suitable for that  and a simple rule turns into a compliance nightmare that prevents these empty structures from being sold and perpetuates the wasted taxpayer dollars spent on upkeep and maintenance.

There are certainly some very positive effects if the government can find a way to fix this problem. The first benefit is that taxpayers will no longer be subsidizing empty buildings that the government can’t or won’t sell; the second benefit is that a streamlined process can be extended to properties the government is using.  Also, any cost-cutting measures applied to the empty buildings could possibly be applied to those being used.  Finally, selling vacant buildings to the private sector creates opportunity for job growth for companies that need property.  Selling these building to the private sector would be a win-win situation for taxpayers and can have a positive impact on the economy by putting these buildings back to productive use.

This issue has brought many sides together and late last month a bi-partisan group of senators introduced the Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act of 2013, which would provide taxpayers some much needed relief by making it easier to dispose of unneeded federal property and establish guidelines for agencies to manage the existing space in a more cost-effective manner. The chief sponsor of the legislation, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), discussed the legislation after it was introduced in the chamber noting the realities of this problem and the burden it is for the taxpayer:

“It’s been clear to me and to others for a long time now that we can get better results and save taxpayer money by improving the way we manage federal property. Excess and underutilized federal properties cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year in maintenance, security, and others costs. The good news is that we can solve this problem by taking some common sense steps to improve federal property management. The Federal Real Property Asset Management Reform Act of 2013 will help to reduce waste and inefficiency by requiring all federal agencies to not only maintain a comprehensive inventory of their properties, but to also take a hard look at which assets they actually need and which could be sold or put to better use. The unnecessary expenses associated with maintaining unneeded properties are the type of low hanging fruit that we need to go after in order to help reduce our federal deficit and ensure that our government is financially responsible. Fortunately, both Congress and the Obama Administration are united in their commitment to address this issue and I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this important bill forward.”

It has become abundantly clear this is a multi-billion dollar problem that both political parties can agree to fix in a timely manner with a commonsense approach that benefits taxpayers and the country.