Underutilized Facilities: DOD and GSA Information Sharing May Enhance Opportunities to Use Space at Military Installations

Abstract : Since 1997, we have designated the Department of Defense s (DOD) Support Infrastructure Management as a high-risk area, in part due to the challenges DOD faces in reducing excess and obsolete infrastructure.1 DOD reports that, as of the end of fiscal year 2013, the global real property portfolio it manages consisted of more than 562,000 facilities (buildings, structures, and linear structures2), located on over 4,800 sites worldwide, covering more than 24.7 million acres, and with a value of approximately $850 billion.3 However, this portfolio includes property that is currently unutilized (vacant) and underutilized (partially vacant), but may be needed in the future.4 The operation and maintenance of unutilized and underutilized facilities consumes valuable resources that could be eliminated from DOD s budget or used by DOD for other purposes. DOD installations can establish outgrants agreements with tenants, such as other DOD organizations, non-DOD federal agencies, and other government and private entities to allow use of property on DOD installations that are unutilized or underutilized. Such agreements may offer potential opportunities for financial benefits, including reduced maintenance costs to DOD. In March 2015, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment testified that a 2004 study concluded that DOD had 24 percent aggregate excess infrastructure capacity and that DOD s 2005 base realignment and closure process disposed of 3.4 percent of those facilities.5 In addition, we have designated federal real property management as a high-risk area since 2003 in part because the federal government continues to maintain too much excess and underutilized property and relies too heavily on costly leases.6 The federal government s real property holdings are vast and diverse comprising hundreds of thousands of buildings and permanent structures across the country, and costing billions of dollars annually to operate and maintain.