Reuse Excess Property Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2685) to make data and internal guidance on excess personal property publicly available, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world, Federal agencies acquire billions of dollars of personal property, ranging from office supplies to automobiles, each year. Unfortunately, agencies routinely and wastefully dispose of excess personal property that could otherwise be repurposed for continued Federal agency use.

Agencies are already required to consider the availability of excess personal property before buying new products. This excess personal property is available to agencies at no cost, apart from any necessary transportation expenses.

In a June 2022 report, the Government Accountability Office found that agencies are continuing to acquire new property while not using available excess personal property. GAO's findings indicate that the guidance in the existing Federal Management Regulation, or FMR, alone may not be sufficient.

With better direction from Congress, agencies can be more efficient in leveraging excess personal property to meet their needs and ultimately save taxpayer dollars.

The Reuse Excess Property Act would hold agencies more accountable toward efficiently using and reusing personal property by introducing transparency and accountability mechanisms.

Specifically, this bill would reform existing statutory reporting requirements to the General Services Administration on excess personal property and require GSA to make this information publicly available. This will help decisionmakers and taxpayers better understand the extent to which agencies are working to cut wasteful spending through the use of excess property, informing future policy.

Because GAO found that agencies have varied guidance on the use of excess personal property that often neglects essential FMR components, S. 2685 would require agencies to publicly report their guidance. Such guidance must include essential FMR components outlined by GAO. Agencies must also designate an employee as responsible for searching through available excess personal property for items that meet agency needs.

In response to GAO's report, in February 2023, GSA convened the first meeting of an interagency working group to assess how agencies acquire personal property, uncover obstacles, and recommend improvements to policies for acquisition professionals. This bill would require GSA to make the findings of that working group, including a general summary, publicly available to provide full transparency into efforts to promote the maximum use of excess personal property.

In conclusion, this bill shines a light on agency practices and could incentivize more efficient use of excess personal property, saving untold taxpayer dollars in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McClain for her leadership on the House companion of this legislation, H.R. 8276.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the Reuse Excess Property Act, which would dramatically increase transparency across the Federal Government by strengthening Federal reporting requirements about excess personal property.

I commend Senators Peters and Lankford for introducing it and Chairwoman McClain and Ranking Member Katie Porter for introducing the House counterpart.

The Federal Government has amassed billions of dollars in personal property, including furniture, things like chairs and desks, vehicles, office supplies, and medical equipment. Billions of dollars means a lot of tables and chairs and computers.

Federal agencies are required to survey and index their inventories of personal property annually and identify items they no longer need.

This accounting enables agencies to have a better understanding of excess items that could be considered for use in other Federal agencies or institutions, which is obviously the prudent thing to do.

The GAO identified $3.9 billion in excess personal property between FY 2016 and FY 2020 and found an additional $28.9 billion in excess personal property items that were reported but not obtained by other agencies.

These excess items could be transferred to other Federal agencies and departments, distributed to a State or local government, or even sold to the public. It shouldn't just be sitting there.

The Reuse Excess Property Act would increase Federal reporting requirements to Congress and the public and provide greater transparency of acquisition, monitoring, reuse, and disposal of personal property across the whole Federal Government. It directs the GSA and Federal agencies to report annually to Congress data that it collects related to excess personal property and would also make this data publicly available to all of us.

This greater transparency around Federal use of personal property may help agencies make far more efficient use of these items.

We support this financially prudent and commonsense bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we urge all of our colleagues to support this legislation and for all Federal agencies to cooperate and aggressively participate in this program.

I yield back the balance of my time.