Federal Management Regulation; Real Property Disposition Policies and Procedures

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION <CFR>41 CFR Part 102-75</CFR> <DEPDOC>[FMR Case 2024-02; Docket No. GSA-FMR-2024-0013; Sequence No. 1]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 3090-AK80</RIN> <SUBJECT>Federal Management Regulation; Real Property Disposition Policies and Procedures</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Government-Wide Policy (OGP), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) proposes to amend subparts of the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) pertaining to real property disposition to align with the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act's disposition process and to address considerations and decisions needed at each stage of the disposal process. This proposed rule will add definitions, policy, and procedures where there were none previously. The rule will assist Federal landholding agencies with understanding their responsibilities when contemplating asset management and disposal actions and engaging with GSA using GSA's authority and their own authorities to meet their Federal real property goals and objectives. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Interested parties should submit written comments to the Regulatory Secretariat Division at the address shown below on or before February 21, 2025, to be considered in the formation of the final rule. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit comments in response to FMR case 2024-02 to: <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching for “FMR Case 2024-02.” Select the link “Comment Now” that corresponds with FMR Case 2024-02. Follow the instructions provided at the “Comment Now” screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and “FMR Case 2024-02” on your attached document. If your comment cannot be submitted using <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> call or email the points of contact in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section of this document for alternate instructions. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Please submit comments only and cite FMR Case 2024-02, in all correspondence related to this case. Comments received generally will be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal or business confidential information, or both. To confirm receipt of your comment(s), please check <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> approximately two to three days after submission to verify posting. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mr. Chris Coneeney, Director, Real Property Policy Division, Office of Government-wide Policy, at 202-208-2956 or <E T="03">chris.coneeney@gsa.gov,</E> for clarification of content. For information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory Secretariat Division at 202-501-4755 or <E T="03">GSARegSec@gsa.gov.</E> Please cite FMR Case 2024-02. A summary of this proposed rule is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> GSA was founded in 1949 with the enactment of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Public Law 107-217, enacted August 21, 2002 (40 U.S.C. 101 and 501, <E T="03">et seq.</E> ), “Public Buildings, Property and Works,” effectively repealed the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act and re-codified its provisions without substantive change. Chapter 5 of the public law will be referred to as the “Property Act” throughout this regulation. The Federal Property and Administrative Services Act established GSA as the Federal Government's centralized management agency consolidating the functions of predecessor agencies ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Federal Works Agency and the War Assets Administration) and authorities such as the 1935 Act and the Surplus Property Act of 1944, including the authority to be the Federal Government's real property disposal agent. Since that time, the Federal real estate landscape has dramatically changed and GSA has evolved from operating solely as the Property Act disposal agent to being a customer-focused Government-wide realty services provider. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">https://disposal.gsa.gov/s/act49.</E> </FTNT> Over the past fifteen years there has been a heightened focus on Federal real property asset management that can be attributed to both executive and legislative actions demonstrating a continuing desire for GSA to play a critical role in disposing of unneeded real property and increasing proceeds from the sale of such property. On November 9, 2011, President Obama signed Executive Order (E.O.) 13589 “Promoting Efficient Spending”  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> directing each agency to reduce its combined costs in a variety of administrative categories by not less than 20 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 from FY 2010 levels. <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/09/executive-order-13589-promoting-efficient-spending.</E> </FTNT> To achieve these savings, many agencies identified and implemented creative and innovative practices to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in real estate. On May 11, 2012, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published Memorandum M-12, “Promoting Efficient Spending to Support Agency Operations,”  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> to describe a series of policies and practices for agencies to take to improve operations, increase efficiency, and cut unnecessary spending. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-12_0.pdf.</E> </FTNT> Subsequently, OMB published Memorandum No.2013-02 on March 14, 2013, “Implementation of OMB Memorandum M-12-12 Section 3: Freeze the Footprint,”  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> as guidance for the Freeze the Footprint (FTF) policy, which directed Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies to maintain the total size of their agency office and warehouse space to an FY 2012 baseline. FTF required agencies to freeze the growth in their office and warehouse inventory or offset any new acquisitions with concomitant reductions. Under the guidance, agencies developed and annually updated three-year plans to restrict the growth in their office and warehouse inventories. Agencies also developed internal controls to facilitate increased communication between agency CFO and Real Property Management offices. The coordinated planning and communication improved agencies' internal management of Federal real property assets. The FTF policy was in effect from FY 2012 through FY 2015. Federal agencies exceeded the FTF policy's objective by decreasing the Government-wide office and warehouse baseline by 24.7 million square feet. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/financial/memos/implementation-of-freeze-the-footprint-guidance.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamaadministration.archives.performance.gov/initiative/freeze-footprint.html.</E> </FTNT> After the FTF policy expired, the requirement for agencies to freeze their office and warehouse baselines to a set portfolio continued through the Reduce the Footprint (RTF) policy. The RTF policy was the successor to the FTF policy; it used FY 2015 data to set a new office and warehouse baseline for agencies to adhere to. On March 25, 2015, OMB released the National Strategy for the Efficient Use of Real Property  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> and its companion policy, the Reduce the Footprint (RTF) policy. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> The National Strategy was a three-step framework to improve real property management aimed to freeze growth in the inventory, measure performance to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements through data driven decision-making, and ultimately reduce the size of the inventory by prioritizing actions to consolidate, co-locate, and dispose of properties. Over time, application of the National Strategy improved the utilization of Government owned and leased buildings, lowered the number of excess and underutilized properties, and improved the cost effectiveness and efficiency of the overall real property portfolio. <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/financial/national-strategy-efficient-use-real-property.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/financial/memos/implementation-reduce-the-footprint.pdf.</E> </FTNT> To make progress under this strategy, OMB issued the RTF policy with Memorandum No. 2015-01, “Implementation of OMB Memorandum M-12-12 Section 3: Reduce the Footprint,”  <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> on March 25, 2015. The RTF policy required agencies to submit annual Real Property Efficiency Plans (Plan) to OMB that— <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/omb/financial/memos/implementation-reduce-the-footprint.pdf.</E> </FTNT> (1) Set annual square foot reduction targets for Federal domestic buildings; (2) Adopted an office space design standard to optimize Federal domestic office space usage; and (3) Required agencies' office and warehouse portfolios to remain at or below their FY 2015 FTF baselines. Under the RTF policy, OMB established a Government-wide policy to use property as efficiently as possible and to reduce agency portfolios through annual reduction targets. The RTF policy was an impetus for real property management transformation that provided value to taxpayers. By implementi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 46k characters. 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