Shared Property Agency Collaboration and Engagement Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today in support of my bill, H.R. 3424, the Shared Property Agency Collaboration and Engagement Act, or SPACE Act.

I am grateful to Congressman Chris Pappas for co-leading this bipartisan effort to bring greater efficiency and accountability to Federal Government real estate decisions.

Mr. Speaker, the GSA currently manages more than 8,300 owned and leased assets, totaling over 363 million square feet. Yet, many of these facilities are underused, duplicative, or poorly maintained.

Agencies often operate in silos. One agency leases new office space while another has empty square footage in the same city. There is no coordinated system to ensure that agencies share space or consolidate operations when possible. That lack of communication leads to waste of taxpayer dollars.

That is why the SPACE Act directs the Administrator of the GSA to identify barriers to Federal agencies sharing space in federally owned or leased buildings and to develop solutions to overcome those barriers. This includes examining logistical, legal, regulatory, or cultural hurdles that prevent our agencies from entering into shared- use agreements, even when that would save money and improve efficiency.

Once the Administrator completes this review, the GSA will report its findings and recommendations to the relevant committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate.

This is a fiscally responsible, good government reform. It doesn't grow government; it makes existing government work smarter. We shouldn't be asking taxpayers to fund more buildings when the Federal Government already has plenty of space that is being mismanaged or ignored.

The SPACE Act promotes better use of what we already own by reducing waste and protecting taxpayer dollars. This is not a new idea. The GAO, the Public Buildings Reform Board, and numerous oversight bodies have repeatedly recommended this kind of interagency coordination in order to reduce costs and improve property management. The SPACE Act puts those recommendations into action and establishes a clear process to identifying opportunities and delivering results.

Again, I thank Congressman Pappas for working with me on this legislation. This is the kind of commonsense, bipartisan approach that shows that we can work together to fix real problems without adding bureaucracy or spending more money.

The SPACE Act is about accountability and stewardship. It says to Federal agencies: Before you ask for more, use what you already have and work with your neighbors to do it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 3424 and to help us to move this important reform forward today.

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