Bill Aims to Cut Wasteful Property Spending in Washington

North Side Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) introduced a bill that aims to cut wasteful property spending. The bill—titled the Excess Building and Property Disposal Act—will save taxpayers $1.67 billion, according to a release from Quigley.

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With the help of co-sponsor Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the bill passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. 

“This bill will cut millions of tax dollars wasted each year maintaining unnecessary properties, and ensure taxpayers are no longer flying blind when it comes to the value of real property the government owns and administers,” Quigley said. “The House passed this bill last year with strong bipartisan support, and similar measures are under consideration in the Senate, so there is no reason for Congress to delay in passing these commonsense and responsible reforms.”

The act targets unused government buildings. The federal government owns the largest amount of property in the United States and 77,700 out of its 900,000 buildings are labeled as underutilized. 

One empty building in Illinois, identified by members of Quigley’s staff, is worth more than $8 million and costs $80,000 a year to maintain.

“With the national debt rising to over $16 trillion, the government can no longer foot the bill for vacant building and unneeded or underutilized properties. Government property that serves no public good should be immediately returned to private ownership,” Chaffetz said. “We were able to pass identical legislation through the House in the 112th Congress with unanimous bipartisan support.  In the 113th, Congress I hope we can turn this common sense legislation into law.”

Unused buildings will be cataloged into a database and disposed of over a five-year process.