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Fee-Demo was, very possibly, the first modern-day program which authorized a federal agency to sell something (in this case recreational access) and to KEEP the proceeds from that sale. After Fee-Demo, this trend became increasingly commonplace. and with each new application we have moved closer to the long-predicted (and long sought after), fire-sale liquidation of our publicly owned assets.
 Pasted below is the most recent proposal as reported in yesterday's WashingtonPost. President Bush, has asked for a "real property disposal pilot" which, according to the Post, "would move unneeded properties directly to sale and provide an incentive for agencies -- they would keep 20 percent of the net proceeds, with 80 percent going into the U.S. Treasury."
Please understand that the is NOTHING particularly new or unusual about this. The USFS piloted almost precisely this program in 2005 with an effort to dispose of "unneeded" USFS-managed public properties. Wild Wilderness played a significant role in drawing national media attention to what was going on. We placed the agency's Working Capital Fund Conveyance Plan online for the public and the media to examine. It was at about the same time that we similarly raised the red flag about the USFS program known as 'Recreation Site Facility Master Planning' --- another program that is part of the trend involving to dispose of so-called unneeded, unwanted or unprofitable, public properties.
Here's a quote from the LA Times article published on May 31, 2005.
[Tom Udall of New Mexico, was more skeptical. "I think it creates an incentive that could have some very adverse consequences," he said. "If you have agencies which are starved for maintenance funds, and you create the incentive to sell assets to get maintenance funds they might very well be carrying out transactions that are not the best."]
THAT, my friends, is precisely what we said about Fee-Demo when we broke that particular story in 1997.
I almost hate to ask this, but I will and would appreciate hearing from you.
Do you care enough to become actively engaged in resisting this trend?
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
What Bust? Bush Wants to Unload Some Real Estate
By Stephen Barr
February 8, 2008
Uncle Sam hopes to start selling off more of his unneeded real estate.
The president's fiscal 2009 budget would create a "real property
disposal pilot" to expedite sales of deteriorating buildings and other
property that is no longer needed.
The pilot project would move unneeded properties directly to sale and
provide an incentive for agencies -- they would keep 20 percent of the
net proceeds, with 80 percent going into the U.S. Treasury.
During the last four years, at the urging of the White House and the
Government Accountability Office, federal agencies have been pulling
together an inventory of what Uncle Sam owns and leases. A report last
year identified more than 20,000 properties, some vacant, that federal
agencies do not use but pay more than $130 million a year to maintain.
The budget proposal would permit agencies to try to get these
properties, valued at more than $17 billion, "off of our books," said
Daniel I. Werfel, acting controller at the Office of Management and
Budget.
The government controls more than $374 billion worth of property
worldwide, and many buildings are more than 50 years old and difficult
to maintain. And obviously, many were never designed to accommodate
computers and other technology.
It can take more than a year to sell surplus property because of laws
and rules that require 13 different reviews. The reviews, for example,
determine if buildings and warehouses should be demolished, offered to
state and local governments or turned over to community groups that
help the homeless.
President Bush's budget proposal asks Congress to allow the government
to streamline the process, in hopes of getting some of the surplus
property on the market in 30 to 90 days.
The pilot project would run for five years, selling property for cash
at not less than fair market value, according to the proposal.
Under a 2004 presidential initiative, the government has already
disposed of more than $7 billion in unneeded assets, Werfel said.
The idea has some support in Congress. The Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee last year approved a bill to create a
similar pilot project that was sponsored by Sen. Thomas R. Carper
(D-Del.). In the House, Rep. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.)
introduced a similar bill last year.
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