Taxpayer Oversight of Surplus Property Act

Taxpayer Oversight of Surplus Property Act - Requires that nonlethal excess supplies of the Department of Defense be made available to a State or a local government upon request before such supplies are made available for humanitarian relief purposes. Permits the President to make such supplies available for humanitarian purposes before they are made available to a State or local government in response to a natural disaster emergency.

Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, with respect to the transfer of property for environmental protection in foreign countries, to prohibit such transfers unless the Administrator of General Services (GSA Administrator) determines that there are no Federal or State use requirements for the property under any other provision of law.

Requires the GSA Administrator to report to the Congress on the effectiveness of surplus personal property donation and disposal programs (except for any program that grants access to personal property by local communities affected by the closure of a military base), along with recommendations for consolidating such programs under a single Federal authority.

[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 351 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Taxpayer Oversight of Surplus 
Property Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) section 203(j) of the Federal Property and 
        Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 484(j)) 
        established a system to ensure the fair and equitable 
        allocation of Federal surplus personal property to eligible 
        recipients including law enforcement agencies, school systems, 
        medical institutions, libraries, homeless assistance providers, 
        and units of local government;
            (2) the benefits of the Federal Personal Property 
        Utilization and Donation Program is measured in terms of 
        American taxpayer dollars not spent from budgets on new and 
        expensive property;
            (3) Members of Congress and State and local officials all 
        have an obligation to oversee the fair and equitable 
        distribution of Government property, thereby ensuring 
        accountability to the American taxpayers;
            (4) the owners of surplus Federal property are the American 
        people and the Federal Government is merely its public 
        custodian;
            (5) the efforts of the State agencies in distributing 
        surplus property have enabled thousands of American taxpayers 
        to acquire items such as office equipment, clothing, furniture, 
        motor vehicles, forklifts, aircraft, boats and generators which 
        have been declared surplus to the needs of the Federal 
        Government;
            (6) the effectiveness of the current system for donation of 
        surplus Federal personal property has been undermined by 
        programs which mandate that property is made available on a 
        priority basis to foreign entities before the safety, health, 
        education, and training needs of American taxpayers are met; 
        and
            (7) new legislation is needed to move the priority for 
        property transfers through foreign assistance programs to a 
        level below that for domestic use transfers of excess personal 
        property to Federal agencies.

SEC. 3. PRIORITY TO STATES AND LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE TRANSFER OF 
              NONLETHAL EXCESS SUPPLIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.

    Section 2547 of title 10, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``The Secretary of 
        Defense'' and inserting ``Subject to subsection (d), the 
        Secretary of Defense'';
            (2) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
            (3) by inserting after subsection (c), the following:
    ``(d)(1) Nonlethal excess supplies of the Department of Defense 
shall be made available to a State or a local government of a State 
upon the request of the State or local government pursuant to authority 
provided in another provision of law, before such supplies are made 
available for humanitarian relief purposes under this section. The 
President may make such supplies available for humanitarian purposes 
before such supplies are made available to a State or local government 
under this subsection in order to respond to an emergency precipitated 
by a natural disaster.''.
    ``(2) In this subsection, the term `State' means a State of the 
United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico, and any possession of the United States.''.

SEC. 4. TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN FOREIGN 
              COUNTRIES.

    Section 607 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
2357(d)) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (d)--
                    (A) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) 
                as subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), respectively;
                    (B) by striking ``(d) The'' and inserting ``(d)(1) 
                Except as provided in paragraph (3), the''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end of the following:
    ``(2) No property may be transferred under paragraph (1) unless the 
Administrator of General Services determines that there is no Federal 
or State use requirements for the property under any other provision of 
law.'';
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the transfer of 
confiscated property to foreign countries.''.

SEC. 5. REPORT ON DISPOSAL AND DONATION SURPLUS PERSONAL PROPERTY.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Administrator of General Services shall review all statutes 
relating to the disposal and donation of surplus personal property and 
submit to Congress a report on such statutes including--
            (1) the effectiveness of programs administered under such 
        statutes (except for any program that grants access to personal 
        property by local communities impacted by the closure of a 
        military base), and the amount and type of property 
        administered under each such program during fiscal years 1997 
        and 1998; and
            (2) legislative recommendations to integrate and 
        consolidate all such programs to be administered by a single 
        Federal authority working with State agencies while 
        accomplishing the purposes of such programs.
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