President Wants|Excess Assets Sold

WASHINGTON (CN) - To "eliminate wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars, save energy and water, and further reduce greenhouse gas pollution," President Obama has ordered executive departments and agencies to sell off surplus real estate and facilities, in a presidential memorandum.

The memo also orders the agencies to take immediate steps to make better use of remaining real property assets as measured by use and occupancy rates, annual operating cost, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

Obama also ordered the agency to examine assets at shorter intervals to determine if they have become redundant or cost ineffective, and to institute shorter and, or more flexible leases of government property to maximize their cost effectiveness.

A sell-off of assets and keeping an eye on efficiency, which will be managed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is expected to save more than $3 billion by 2012.

The administration has been promoting consolidation within and across agencies in common asset types (such as data centers, office space, warehouses, and laboratories).

The Office of Management and Budget also has been ordered to increase occupancy rates in current facilities through new space management programs and alternative workplace arrangements, such as telework; and identifying offsetting reductions in inventory when new space is acquired.

Actions taken under the memorandum are supposed to align with and support the actions to measure and reduce resource use and greenhouse gas emissions from federal facilities, the standards for which have been announced in previous presidential orders.

Click the document icon for this order and other orders and regulations.

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