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The PBRB testified in front of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee yesterday. Our press release is below.
PBRB Testifies $50 Billion Needed Now for Maintenance and Repair of Federal Buildings
GSA Only Receives $600 Million Annually to Address Skyrocketing Needs
Washington, DC (12/11/25) — Approximately $50 billion is needed to immediately address the backlog of deferred maintenance and repair liabilities across the General Services Administration’s (GSA) real estate portfolio nationally, according to Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) member Michael Capuano.
In testimony delivered today before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, Capuano explained that total deferred maintenance for GSA’s portfolio will balloon to $546 billion in 10 years, using GSA’s own 27% rate of escalation. In stark contrast, GSA currently receives only about $600 million annually to address these skyrocketing needs.
“While Congress has sent a consistent and clear message to GSA to downsize its real estate portfolio in order to cut costs and save taxpayer dollars, it is unrealistic to expect GSA to shrink its portfolio so that $600 million is sufficient to bring federal property up to modern day expectations,” Capuano stated. “Even if GSA sold every possible property it owns, with the exception of land ports of entry, courthouses, and law enforcement facilities, current funding levels could not meet the maintenance and repair requirements of the remaining buildings.”
Despite these budget shortfalls, Capuano told the Subcommittee that PBRB “is continuing to identify federal properties with value and low use and recommend them as ‘first line’ opportunities for divestment. Revenues captured from these sales could then be used to fund subsequent consolidations and dispositions.”
Through its engagement with local real estate brokers, historic preservation groups, and municipalities throughout the country, PBRB has identified a number of federal properties to sell directly to local stakeholders. To seize on those market opportunities uncovered to date, PBRB is currently preparing a set of urgent property recommendations where potential buyers already have shown interest.
To be truly effective, however, such an approach would require a much faster timeline than the one GSA normally operates under, as well as legal and policy changes to ensure market-timed dispositions were feasible. To that end, Capuano proposed extending PBRB beyond its current December 31, 2026, sunset date with amplified authority and budget to oversee and achieve the number of reductions required across the federal portfolio.
“Real estate opportunities don’t wait for slow processes,” explained Capuano. “By extending PBRB and strengthening its authority, Congress can ensure that an entity is positioned to act with the speed the market demands, identifying high-value opportunities to shrink the federal real estate inventory, modernize workplaces for federal employees, and save taxpayers billions of dollars in the process.”
Capuano added that moving federal agencies into leases could also help to address the deferred maintenance issue. “Because lease rates are down in many areas of the country, agencies may be able to find leases which cost less than what taxpayers currently pay in rent charged by GSA in GSA-owned buildings,” he testified. Lease costs are also known and predictable for the duration of the lease. They can be expanded or shrunk according to changing needs more quickly than buying or selling property.
Capuano cautioned, however, that more affordable rents tend to drive down the value of real estate, potentially leading to lower proceeds from the sale of federal properties. In addition, vacating GSA-owned buildings and moving federal agencies into leases could result in a loss of rental revenue for GSA while presenting taxpayers with a bill for both the lease and the day-to-day operations of a largely unoccupied and undermaintained building.
Concluding his testimony, Capuano stated that despite return-to-office mandates and passage of the 2024 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) – which stipulates federal properties which did not meet a space use rate of 60% on average over a year would be required to be divested from the federal portfolio – PBRB found that many federal properties remain seriously underutilized.
Many federal agencies also appear to be having trouble collecting real data on daily use despite readily available technology that would support collection and produce the valid and consistent information required to effectively manage properties. “We understand OMB is pushing agencies hard to gather and provide the required occupancy information,” Capuano told Subcommittee members. “PBRB anxiously awaits access to whatever data any agency has in order to better assess various properties we have identified for possible disposition.”
The Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) was established as an independent agency under the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 to identify opportunities for the reduction and consolidation of the federal real property inventory and reduce costs to the federal government. For more information about PBRB, visit https://www.pbrb.gov/.
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Background on the PBRB
Because there has been some confusion and misunderstanding about the work being done by the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) and other federal agencies which play a role in the oversight of the federal real estate portfolio, we have attempted to provide a brief overview of the role being played by PBRB, its responsibilities, and work it has done to date.
PBRB’s Role and Responsibilities
- Recognizing that there is a vast oversupply of poorly maintained, expensive, and underutilized federal office space – and that Congress cannot appropriate its way out of the capital expenditures accruing to the U.S. taxpayer from owning, leasing, and maintaining these properties – Congress passed the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (FASTA).
- Among other initiatives, FASTA established the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) in 2019 as an independent, bipartisan agency whose sole mission is to identify and recommend federal properties for sale, and to make recommendations for how to streamline the disposal process for those properties.
- PBRB’ recommendations for reducing the federal real estate portfolio offer a rare opportunity to yield triple bottom line benefits:
- Selling federal buildings that are underused, in disrepair, or vacant will save U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars currently being paid for day-to-day operations and deferred maintenance.
- Federal employees will be able to consolidate operations and work in modernized spaces that are safer, healthier, and more supportive of their day-to-day activities.
- Buildings that are underused can be returned to their respective communities and developed to meet top community needs, which in turn enables municipalities to realize taxes on those properties (since federal properties don’t pay taxes to local municipalities).
- PBRB has worked with commercial real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle to analyze and identify the costs associated with the current federal real estate portfolio in selected markets and modeled the cost savings that could be achieved through various actions, such as consolidations into leased spaces and dispositions.
- To date, PBRB has identified and recommended disposal of properties worth more than $450 million.
- In its first report (the High Value Asset Report, issued in 2020), PBRB recommended 12 properties for disposal, of which 10 have been sold to date for a total of $193 million.
- In its second report (the First Round Report, issued in 2021), PBRB recommended 15 additional properties for dispositions, worth approximately $275 million.
- PBRB’s Second Round Report will be issued this year.
- A third round of property divestment recommendations will be issued in 2026.
- Money from the sale of federal properties recommended by PBRB and approved by OMB is received by the Asset Proceeds and Space Management Fund (which like PBRB was established by FASTA). GSA then has the authority to seek appropriations and spend those funds in preparation for further consolidations and dispositions under FASTA. Net proceeds from a disposition are retained by the federal agency owning the property at the time of its declared excess.
- Under the Public Buildings Reform Legislation of 2025, PBRB will sunset on December 31, 2026.
Outside PBRB’s Purview
- PBRB does not sell federal properties, nor does it dictate the use of property once it has been sold. While PBRB is empowered to provide expertise and recommendations to the federal government and Congress based on its best use analyses of the federal real property portfolio, it does not have decision-making power with respect to final consolidation, disposition, use, or redevelopment of these sites.
- PBRB is not part of DOGE. PBRB was created under FASTA as an independent, bipartisan agency whose sole mission is to identify and recommend federal properties for sale, and to make recommendations for how to streamline the disposal process. Any pronouncements regarding federal buildings made by DOGE are independent of PBRB and not made in consultation with PBRB.
- PBRB is not a part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nor the General Services Administration (GSA). PBRB’s recommendations are made with the expectation that Congress, GSA, OMB, and all other federal agencies will become much more active in seizing the opportunity presented by the current circumstances to consolidate and improve the federal real property portfolio.