Title: A bill to amend title 40, United States Code, to provide requirements for the disposal of surplus Federal property relating to review of bidders and post-sale responsibilities.
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
This bill requires the General Services Administration (GSA), for the purpose of ensuring settlement of a loan that was used by a member of the public to purchase federal real property that has a significant health or safety concern: (1) to identify, during the course of the ordinary bidding process, whether there is any obvious and significant indication that the prospective purchaser is incapable of settling the loan obligation or removing any health or safety conditions; and (2) if such an indication is identified, to document it and disallow the sale.
If an immediate or subsequent purchaser of an asbestos-affected federal property is a debtor and transfers any of the property having significant quantities of unabated asbestos to a state or local government, GSA shall coordinate with other federal agencies to identify funding resources for asbestos abatement if such government submits a request for such coordination within 20 years after the initial sale of the affected property by the GSA.
The bill defines "asbestos-affected property" as any federal property sold by the GSA after April 30, 2013, that contains friable asbestos and a significant overall quantity of asbestos, such that damage inflicted on the property by a natural disaster would cause significant damage to the public.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 894 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 894

To amend title 40, United States Code, to provide requirements for the 
disposal of surplus Federal property relating to review of bidders and 
                      post-sale responsibilities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 7, 2017

  Mr. Daines introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 40, United States Code, to provide requirements for the 
disposal of surplus Federal property relating to review of bidders and 
                      post-sale responsibilities.

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

SECTION 1. MODIFICATIONS RELATING TO METHOD OF DISPOSITION OF SURPLUS 
              FEDERAL PROPERTY AND SUBSEQUENT RESPONSIBILITIES.

    Section 543 of title 40, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in the first sentence, by striking ``An executive'' and 
        inserting the following:
    ``(a) In General.--The Administrator of General Services or an 
executive'';
            (2) in the second sentence--
                    (A) by striking ``it considers''; and
                    (B) by striking ``The agency'' and inserting the 
                following:
    ``(b) Disposal Actions.--
            ``(1) Documentation.--The Administrator of General Services 
        or an executive agency''; and
            (3) in subsection (b) (as designated by paragraph (2)(B)), 
        by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Observations of bidder.--For purposes of ensuring 
        settlement of a loan used for the purchase by a member of the 
        public of any Federal real property with a significant health 
        or safety concern sold by the General Services Administration 
        under this chapter, the Administrator of General Services 
        shall--
                    ``(A) during the course of the ordinary bidding 
                process, identify, to the best of the ability of the 
                Administrator of General Services, whether any obvious 
                and significant indication is present that the 
                purchaser is not capable of--
                            ``(i) settling the loan obligation; or
                            ``(ii) removing any health or safety 
                        conditions; and
                    ``(B) if such an obvious and significant indication 
                is identified--
                            ``(i) document the indication; and
                            ``(ii) disallow sale of the Federal 
                        property to the prospective purchaser.
            ``(3) Asbestos.--
                    ``(A) Definition of asbestos-affected property.--In 
                this paragraph, the term `asbestos-affected property' 
                means any Federal property that--
                            ``(i) is sold by the General Services 
                        Administration under this chapter after April 
                        30, 2013; and
                            ``(ii) contains--
                                    ``(I) friable asbestos; and
                                    ``(II) a significant overall 
                                quantity of asbestos, such that damage 
                                inflicted on the Federal property by a 
                                natural disaster would cause 
                                significant damage to the public due to 
                                the quantity of asbestos.
                    ``(B) Responsibility.--In the event that an 
                immediate or subsequent purchaser of an asbestos-
                affected property is a debtor (as defined in section 
                101 of title 11, United States Code), and transfers any 
                portion of the asbestos-affected property with 
                significant quantities of unabated asbestos to a unit 
                of State or local government, on request by that unit 
                of government, the Administrator of General Services 
                shall coordinate with other Federal agencies to 
                identify funding resources for the purpose of asbestos 
                abatement if that unit of government submits the 
                request to the Administrator of General Services not 
                later than 20 years after the date of the initial sale 
                of the real property by the General Services 
                Administration.''.
                                 <all>