Federal building disposal board set to halt, funding stalls
Congress provided no new appropriations to a federal property-disposal fund for three straight years even as proceeds from earlier property sales accumulated in the account, and the board created to accelerate those disposals is set to cease operations Dec. 31, a Government Accountability Office report found.
The Public Buildings Reform Board was created under the 2016 Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act, known as FASTA, to identify unneeded federal properties and recommend them for expedited sale, working alongside the General Services Administration.
Congress appropriated $90 million for the fund between 2016 and 2022, then nothing from fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2025, even as sales proceeds accumulated in the account, according to the report. Proceeds deposited into the fund can only be spent on future disposals if Congress separately appropriates access to them.
Lawmakers added about $143 million in fiscal 2026, bringing cumulative appropriations to about $233 million, roughly $305 million less than the $538 million in proceeds from the 2019 High-Value Assets Round that had been deposited into the fund. GSA requested $193.3 million for the fund in fiscal 2026 to carry out disposal activities, according to a GSA official familiar with the matter, but received about $143 million.
As of August 2026, 14 of 23 properties approved for disposal under the program had been disposed of, with a combined value of about $576 million, the report found. All but two of those properties were from the 2019 High-Value Assets Round, which generated the $538 million; the remaining $38 million came from two properties disposed of under the 2025 Second Round, a $24 million sale and a $14 million transfer to another federal agency at fair market value. The Second Round has otherwise stalled, with nine of its 11 approved properties still awaiting disposal.
Paul Walden, the Board’s executive director, told The Center Square that funding uncertainty was among the biggest obstacles to completing disposals under the program.
A GSA spokesperson said in a statement that Congress “expects GSA to rapidly implement its directives, but fails to provide the spending authority we need to do so,” adding that lawmakers “appropriate only a fraction of GSA’s funding requests,” and citing an example in which the agency received $4 million of a $16 million funding justification. “GSA has demonstrated the expertise and experience to manage our real estate portfolio efficiently and cost-effectively, but we need the funding authority and flexibility to move at the pace the mission demands and that taxpayers expect,” the spokesperson said.
The relationship between the Board and GSA has grown strained heading into a final round of disposals, according to the GAO report, which said the Board complained GSA had not been fully forthcoming with data. GSA did not respond to a request for comment on that characterization. Walden narrowed the Board’s criticism in the interview, saying its concern was specifically about access to building utilization data collected under a separate law, not GSA’s financial or occupancy records broadly.
FASTA does not require disposals to be completed before the Board’s authority ends, and GSA will continue handling the remaining properties after Dec. 31, according to a GSA official familiar with the matter. GSA is focused on relocating federal tenants out of the nine unsold buildings and will begin marketing and sales efforts as vacancy dates approach, the official said.
The Board expects to submit its final round of disposal recommendations to the White House Office of Management and Budget within days, Walden said in a Sept. 21 interview, giving OMB time to review the recommendations before the Board’s authority expires in December. Walden said the Board plans to hold a formal press conference once that submission is made.
A bill introduced in the House this month, H.R. 10305, would extend the Board’s life by two years, to Dec. 31, 2028, and require GSA and OMB to share the utilization data Walden said the Board has struggled to obtain. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., was advanced by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Sept. 15.
GAO also found that GSA’s disposal data were incomplete, with nearly 45% of values missing across two key dates used to measure disposal timelines when the agency first submitted the data for review. GSA has said it is working to address the gaps, which GAO first flagged in an April 2026 report.
The bill would also let GSA temporarily retain a federal building as swing space to support the sale or major renovation of other federal properties, provided the cost does not exceed savings generated by those transactions and GSA submits annual plans for its use to Congress.
With the Board set to cease operations Dec. 31 and nine of the 11 properties approved in the 2025 Second Round still awaiting disposal, Congress will decide in the coming months whether to extend a program it funded at roughly $305 million less than one earlier round alone generated for it.
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