The interagency Federal Real Property Council (FRPC) was created by provisions in Executive Order 13327, “Federal Real Property Asset Management,” which President George W. Bush signed on February 4, 2004. Executive Order 13327 states: “The policy of the United States is to promote efficient and economical use of America’s real property assets and to assure management accountability for implementing federal real property management reforms.” Its major provisions include the following:
- Establish the position of a senior real property officer (SRPO) at each major landholding agency, who will be held accountable for the effective management of agency real properties;
- Direct all SRPOs to develop and implement agency asset management plans;
- Create the FRCP; and
- Authorize the development of a single, descriptive database of federal real properties.
The executive order charged the FRCP to develop guidance, serve as a clearinghouse for best practices, and facilitate the efforts of the SRPOs. The council consists of the SRPOs, the controller of OMB, the GSA administrator, and any other officials or employees permitted by the chair. OMB’s deputy director for management chairs the FRCP, and OMB provides funding and administrative support. Three FRPC interagency committees (Asset Management Planning, Inventory and Performance Measures, and Systems) work to accomplish its objectives.
GSA supports the FRPC through the following activities:
- Providing oversight guidance to executive departments and agencies on real property, including the managing of properties, delegating operating responsibilities to an agency and providing leadership in the development and maintenance of property information systems;
- Publishing performance measures and standards adopted by the FRPC (including an annual data dictionary;
- Establishing and maintaining a database on real property owned and leased by federal agencies and collecting inventory information on the federal government’s real property holdings—the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) database; and
- Establishing information technology standards for landholding agencies to facilitate the reporting of real property information on a uniform basis.
A recent GAO report criticized the FRPC for not following sound data collection practices in designing and maintaining the Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) database.