II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 351

To provide that certain Federal property shall be made available to States

for State and local organization use before being made available to

other entities, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 3, 1999

Mr. GRAMS (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. SESSIONS, and Mr. BENNETT)

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the

Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To provide that certain Federal property shall be made available to States for State and local organization use before

being made available to other entities, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Taxpayer Oversight

5 of Surplus Property Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds that—
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1 (1) section 203(j) of the Federal Property and

2 Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C.

3 484(j)) established a system to ensure the fair and

4 equitable allocation of Federal surplus personal

5 property to eligible recipients including law enforce6 ment agencies, school systems, medical institutions,

7 libraries, homeless assistance providers, and units of

8 local government;

9 (2) the benefits of the Federal Personal Prop10 erty Utilization and Donation Program is measured

11 in terms of American taxpayer dollars not spent

12 from budgets on new and expensive property;

13 (3) Members of Congress and State and local

14 officials all have an obligation to oversee the fair and

15 equitable distribution of Government property, there16 by ensuring accountability to the American tax17 payers;

18 (4) the owners of surplus Federal property are

19 the American people and the Federal Government is

20 merely its public custodian;

21 (5) the efforts of the State agencies in distrib22 uting surplus property have enabled thousands of

23 American taxpayers to acquire items such as office

24 equipment, clothing, furniture, motor vehicles, fork25 lifts, aircraft, boats and generators which have been
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1 declared surplus to the needs of the Federal Govern2 ment;

3 (6) the effectiveness of the current system for

4 donation of surplus Federal personal property has

5 been undermined by programs which mandate that

6 property is made available on a priority basis to for7 eign entities before the safety, health, education, and

8 training needs of American taxpayers are met; and

9 (7) new legislation is needed to move the prior10 ity for property transfers through foreign assistance

11 programs to a level below that for domestic use

12 transfers of excess personal property to Federal

13 agencies.

14 SEC. 3. PRIORITY TO STATES AND LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

15 FOR THE TRANSFER OF NONLETHAL EXCESS

16 SUPPLIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DE17 FENSE.

18 Section 2547 of title 10, United States Code, is

19 amended—

20 (1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘The Sec21 retary of Defense’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to sub22 section (d), the Secretary of Defense’’;

23 (2) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub24 section (e); and
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1 (3) by inserting after subsection (c), the follow2 ing:

3 ‘‘(d)(1) Nonlethal excess supplies of the Department

4 of Defense shall be made available to a State or a local

5 government of a State upon the request of the State or

6 local government pursuant to authority provided in an7 other provision of law, before such supplies are made avail8 able for humanitarian relief purposes under this section.

9 The President may make such supplies available for hu10 manitarian purposes before such supplies are made avail11 able to a State or local government under this subsection

12 in order to respond to an emergency precipitated by a nat13 ural disaster.’’.

14 ‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘State’ means a

15 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the

16 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any possession of the

17 United States.’’.

18 SEC. 4. TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

19 PROTECTION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

20 Section 607 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

21 (22 U.S.C. 2357(d)) is amended—

22 (1) in subsection (d)—

23 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2),

24 and (3) as subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), respec25 tively;
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1 (B) by striking ‘‘(d) The’’ and inserting

2 ‘‘(d)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (3),

3 the’’; and

4 (C) by adding at the end of the following:

5 ‘‘(2) No property may be transferred under para6 graph (1) unless the Administrator of General Services de7 termines that there is no Federal or State use require8 ments for the property under any other provision of law.’’;

9 and

10 (2) by adding at the end the following:

11 ‘‘(e) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the transfer

12 of confiscated property to foreign countries.’’.

13 SEC. 5. REPORT ON DISPOSAL AND DONATION SURPLUS

14 PERSONAL PROPERTY.

15 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment

16 of this Act, the Administrator of General Services shall

17 review all statutes relating to the disposal and donation

18 of surplus personal property and submit to Congress a re19 port on such statutes including—

20 (1) the effectiveness of programs administered

21 under such statutes (except for any program that

22 grants access to personal property by local commu23 nities impacted by the closure of a military base),

24 and the amount and type of property administered
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1 under each such program during fiscal years 1997

2 and 1998; and

3 (2) legislative recommendations to integrate

4 and consolidate all such programs to be adminis5 tered by a single Federal authority working with

6 State agencies while accomplishing the purposes of

7 such programs.

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