The Office of Management and Budget has released new policy that requires government agencies to reduce real estate footprint using a national framework laid out in the document.
David Mader, federal controller at OMB, wrote in a blog post published Wednesday that the National Strategy for Real Property and the Reduce the Footprint policy establish a strategic framework to help agencies manage real property, control costs and reduce real property holdings.
The new policy overrules the administration’s 2013 action that ordered agencies to freeze their federal property footprint and the growth of underutilized properties.
Mader noted that the 2013 Freeze the Footprint policy led to a 21.4 million-square-foot reduction in office and warehouse space between fiscal years 2012 and 2014.
Under the new national strategy, agencies must continue to restrict the growth in their inventory, measure performance to find cost-cutting opportunities, and consolidate, co-locate and dispose of properties beginning in FY 2016.
Additionally, the RTF policy requires agencies to specify annual square-foot reduction targets for federal buildings and adopt design standards as well.
The OMB also partnered with the General Services Administration and the Federal Real Property Council to implement new analytical tools intended to provide detailed data on properties’ annual cost, location, size and lease expiration in order to schedule resources.
