WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) praised Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passage of the bipartisan the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act to reduce the federal government’s inventory and maintenance of unneeded real properties. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Warner along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and James Lankford (R-OK), includes large portions of Sens. Warner and Blunt’s Civilian Property Realignment Act, which was introduced in the 114^th and 113^th Congresses.

“Too many federal properties are unneeded and underused. We need to take a businesslike approach to carefully review federal real estate holdings and look for opportunities to downsize,” Sen. Warner said. “By aggressively looking for ways to consolidate and sell these federal properties, we can save taxpayers billions of dollars by reducing maintenance and operations costs for years to come.”

The Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act requires that at least $500 million in unneeded properties be disposed of in the initial phase of sales and creates a process to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that prevents agencies from disposing of excess property in a timely and effective manner. Proceeds generated from these sales will be re-invested to carry out more property disposals, resulting in savings in operations and maintenance. At the end of the 6-year process, remaining funds will be returned to the Treasury to reduce the deficit. 

Full text of the bill can be found here.