I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3465 

To direct Federal agencies to transfer excess Federal electronic equipment, 

including computers, computer components, printers, and fax machines, 

to educational recipients. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 31, 2009 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. BORDALLO, Mr. RUSH, and Mrs. 

LOWEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

To direct Federal agencies to transfer excess Federal electronic equipment, including computers, computer components, printers, and fax machines, to educational recipients. 

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 ‘‘Federal Electronic 

5 Equipment Donation Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO TRANSFER USEFUL FEDERAL 

2 ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT TO EDUCATIONAL 

3 RECIPIENTS. 

4 (a) TRANSFER OF EQUIPMENT TO EDUCATIONAL

5 ENTITIES.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each Federal agency shall 

7 identify useful Federal electronic equipment that the 

8 agency has determined is excess to its needs and— 

9 (A) report such equipment to the Adminis10 trator of General Services for processing for 

11 transfer to an educational recipient in accord12 ance with section 549 of title 40, United States 

13 Code; 

14 (B) transfer such equipment directly to an 

15 educational recipient, through an arrangement 

16 made by the Administrator of General Services 

17 under subsection (b); or 

18 (C) report such equipment to the Adminis19 trator of General Services as excess property if 

20 transfer under subparagraph (A) or (B) is not 

21 practicable. 

22 (2) MANAGEMENT OF NONTRANSFERABLE

23 EQUIPMENT.—For equipment reported under para24 graph (1)(C), the Administrator of General Services 

25 shall manage the equipment in accordance with subVerDate Nov 24 2008 00:26 Aug 04, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3465.IH H3465

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1 chapters II and III of chapter 5 of title 40, United 

2 States Code. 

3 (3) EXCEPTION.—Equipment transferred pur4 suant to section 11(i) of the Stevenson-Wydler Tech5 nology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710(i)) 

6 is neither transferred pursuant to this Act nor sub7 ject to this Act’s requirements. 

8 (b) ADVANCE REPORTING OF EQUIPMENT TO

9 GSA.—Each Federal agency shall report to the Adminis10 trator of General Services the availability of useful Federal 

11 electronic equipment as far as possible in advance of the 

12 date the equipment is expected to become excess to its 

13 needs, so that the Administrator may attempt to arrange 

14 for the direct transfer from the donating agency to edu15 cational recipients. 

16 (c) USE OF NONPROFIT REFURBISHERS.—In trans17 ferring any equipment pursuant to this Act, at the request 

18 of the educational recipient and if appropriate, if the 

19 equipment is not classroom-usable, the transferring agen20 cy shall convey the equipment initially to a nonprofit re21 furbisher for upgrade before transfer to the educational 

22 recipient. 

23 (d) REMOVAL OF DATA BEFORE TRANSFER.—In 

24 transferring any equipment pursuant to this Act, the 

25 transferring agency shall remove data from the equipment 


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1 prior to transfer to the educational recipient according to 

2 accepted sanitization procedures. To the maximum extent 

3 practicable, the transferring agency shall remove data 

4 using a means that does not remove, disable, destroy, or 

5 otherwise render unusable the equipment or components. 

6 (e) PREFERENCE.—In transferring any equipment 

7 pursuant to this Act, the transferring agency shall give 

8 the highest preference to educational recipients located in 

9 an enterprise community or empowerment zone designated 

10 under section 1391 or 1400 of the Internal Revenue Code 

11 of 1986, a qualifying small town, or a qualifying county. 

12 (f) LOW COST.—Any transfer made pursuant to this 

13 Act shall be made at the lowest cost to the educational 

14 recipient permitted by law. 

15 (g) TITLE.—Title of ownership of equipment trans16 ferred pursuant to this Act shall transfer to the edu17 cational recipient receiving the equipment. 

18 (h) NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF EQUIPMENT.—The 

19 Administrator of General Services shall provide notice of 

20 the anticipated availability of useful Federal electronic 

21 equipment to educational recipients by all practicable 

22 means, including newspapers, community announcements, 

23 and the Internet. 

24 (i) FACILITATION BY REGIONAL FEDERAL EXECU25 TIVE BOARDS.—The regional Federal Executive Boards 


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1 (as that term is used in part 960 of title 5, Code of Fed2 eral Regulations) shall help facilitate the transfer of useful 

3 Federal electronic equipment from the agencies they rep4 resent to educational recipients under this Act. 

5 SEC. 3. RULEMAKING. 

6 The Administrator of General Services shall prescribe 

7 rules and procedures to carry out this Act. 

8 SEC. 4. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS. 

9 This Act supersedes Executive Order No. 12999 of 

10 April 17, 1996. 

11 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

12 This Act may not be construed to create any right 

13 or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law 

14 by a party against the United States or its agencies, offi15 cers, or employees. 

16 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

17 In this Act: 

18 (1) The term ‘‘Federal agency’’ means an Exec19 utive department or an Executive agency (as such 

20 terms are defined in chapter 1 of title 5, United 

21 States Code). 

22 (2) The term ‘‘educational recipient’’ means a 

23 school or a community-based educational organiza24 tion. 


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1 (3) The term ‘‘school’’ includes a prekinder2 garten program (as that term is used in the Elemen3 tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965), an ele4 mentary school, a secondary school, and a local edu5 cational agency (as those terms are defined in sec6 tion 9101 of that Act). 

7 (4) The term ‘‘community based educational or8 ganization’’ means a nonprofit entity that qualifies 

9 as a nonprofit educational institution or organization 

10 for purposes of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal 

11 Revenue Code of 1986 and— 

12 (A) is engaged in collaborative projects, 

13 the primary focus of which is education, with 

14 schools, qualifying small towns, qualifying coun15 ties, or libraries; or 

16 (B) provides use of computers and Internet 

17 access to members of the community at no 

18 charge. 

19 (5) The term ‘‘qualifying small town’’ means a 

20 political subdivision with a population of not more 

21 than 24,999 individuals where 20 percent or more of 

22 the residents earn less than the poverty threshold 

23 (as defined by the Bureau of the Census). 

24 (6) The term ‘‘qualifying county’’ means a 

25 county where 20 percent or more of the residents 


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1 earn less than the poverty threshold (as defined by 

2 the Bureau of the Census). 

3 (7) The term ‘‘useful Federal electronic equip4 ment’’— 

5 (A) means— 

6 (i) computers and related peripheral 

7 tools (such as computer printers, modems, 

8 routers, and servers), including tele9 communications and research equipment; 

10 (ii) fax machines; and 

11 (iii) any other electronic equipment 

12 determined by a Federal agency to be po13 tentially useful to an educational recipient; 

14 and 

15 (B) includes computer software, where the 

16 transfer of a license is permitted. 

17 (8) The term ‘‘classroom-usable’’, with respect 

18 to useful Federal electronic equipment, means such 

19 equipment that does not require an upgrade of hard20 ware or software in order to be used by an edu21 cational recipient without being first transferred 

22 under section 2(c) to a nonprofit refurbisher for 

23 such an upgrade. 

24 (9) The term ‘‘nonprofit refurbisher’’ means an 

25 organization that— 


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1 (A) is exempt from income taxes under 

2 section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 

3 1986; and 

4 (B) upgrades useful Federal electronic 

5 equipment that is not yet classroom-usable at 

6 no cost or low cost to the ultimate educational 

7 recipient. 

8 SEC. 7. PREFERENCE IN DONATION OF PERSONAL PROP9 ERTY THROUGH STATE AGENCIES. 

10 Section 549(e)(3)(B) of title 40, United States Code, 

11 is amended— 

12 (1) by striking ‘‘The state plan’’ and inserting 

13 the following: 

14 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The state plan’’; 

15 and 

16 (2) by adding at the end the following new 

17 clause: 

18 ‘‘(ii) PREFERENCE.—The state plan 

19 of operation shall require the state agency 

20 to give the highest preference for electronic 

21 equipment to eligible institutions (as de22 scribed in subsection (c)(3)) that are lo23 cated in an enterprise community or em24 powerment zone designated under section 

25 1391 or 1400 of the Internal Revenue 


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1 Code of 1986, a political subdivision with 

2 a population of not more than 24,999 indi3 viduals where 20 percent or more of the 

4 residents earn less than the poverty thresh5 old (as defined by the Bureau of the Cen6 sus), or a county where 20 percent or more 

7 of the residents earn less than poverty 

8 threshold (as defined by the Bureau of the 

9 Census).’’. 

10 SEC. 8. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

11 (a) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 18 months 

12 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Adminis13 trator of General Services shall submit to Congress a re14 port. 

15 (b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report shall con16 tain the following: 

17 (1) An inventory of items that Federal agencies 

18 identified as useful Federal electronic equipment 

19 that the agency has determined is excess to its needs 

20 in the first 365 days after the date of the enactment 

21 of this Act. 

22 (2) The number of such items that were— 

23 (A) transferred to educational recipients 

24 pursuant to this Act; 


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1 (B) transferred to other Federal agencies 

2 and organizations pursuant to section 521 of 

3 title 40, United States Code; 

4 (C) transferred to State agencies pursuant 

5 to section 549 of title 40, United State Code; 

6 or 

7 (D) disposed of through other means. 

8 (3) Recommendations for further legislation or 

9 administrative action that the Administrator con10 siders appropriate to establish an effective system 

11 for transferring excess useful Federal electronic 

12 equipment to educational recipients. 

Æ 


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