GSA Lease Transparency Act of 2019

IB Union Calendar No. 539 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5047 [Report No. 116–655] To require the Administrator of General Services to conduct an annual audit of properties leased to private parties, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 12, 2019 Mr. DEFAZIO (for himself and Ms. TITUS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure DECEMBER 16, 2020 Additional sponsors: Ms. NORTON and Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas DECEMBER 16, 2020 Reported from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; com- mitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5047 RH A BILL To require the Administrator of General Services to conduct an annual audit of properties leased to private parties, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5047 RH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘GSA Lease Trans- 4 parency Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. ANNUAL AUDIT. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 5 of subtitle I of title 40, 7 United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 8 following: 9 ‘‘§ 625. Annual audit of leases 10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 11 date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 12 the Administrator of General Services shall complete an 13 audit, in compliance with generally accepted government 14 accounting standards, of covered leases. 15 ‘‘(b) CONTENT OF AUDIT.—The audit shall deter- 16 mine whether the Federal Government has received all 17 rent, revenues, and anything of value due in accordance 18 with the provisions of each covered lease. 19 ‘‘(c) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 30 days after the 20 date of completion of an audit, the Administrator of Gen- 21 eral Services shall submit to the Committee on Transpor- 22 tation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives 23 and the Committee on Environment and Public Works of 24 the Senate the audit and a report on such audit. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5047 RH ‘‘(d) ADDITIONAL AUDIT REQUIREMENT FOR 1 LEASES.—With respect to any covered lease that takes ef- 2 fect on or after the date of enactment of this section, the 3 Administrator shall require that such a lease contains 4 audit rights for the Administrator and the Inspector Gen- 5 eral of the General Services Administration. 6 ‘‘(e) DEFINITION.—In this section, the following defi- 7 nition applies: 8 ‘‘(1) COVERED LEASE.—The term ‘covered 9 lease’ means an active lease of space in a Federal 10 building in which at least 20 percent of such build- 11 ing is leased to any entity pursuant to any provision 12 of law, including— 13 ‘‘(A) section 543; 14 ‘‘(B) section 581; 15 ‘‘(C) sections 306121 and 306122 of title 16 54, United States Code; and 17 ‘‘(D) Public Law 108–447 (108 Stat. 2809 18 et seq.).’’. 19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of chap- 20 ters for chapter 5 of subtitle I of title 40, United States 21 Code, is amended by adding after the item relating to sec- 22 tion 624 the following new item: 23 ‘‘625. Annual audit of leases.’’. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS Union Calendar No. 539 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5047 [Report No. 116–655] A BILL To require the Administrator of General Services to conduct an annual audit of properties leased to private parties, and for other purposes. DECEMBER 16, 2020 Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 Dec 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H5047.RH H5047 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS