Streamlining DHS Overhead Act

Streamlining DHS Overhead Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish a Chief Facilities and Logistics Officer within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who shall: (1) develop policies and procedures and provide program oversight to manage DHS property, equipment, and material resources; (2) manage and execute mission support services within the National Capital Region for DHS real property, facilities, headquarters, and field activities; and (3) provide tactical and transactional services for DHS.

DHS shall develop: (1) an initial five-year regional real property strategy, which shall be geographically organized; (2) a subsequent five-year real property strategy; and (3) a department-wide policy implementing such strategies.

The initial five-year strategy shall:

• identify opportunities to consolidate real property, optimize the usage of federal assets, and decrease the number of commercial leases and square footage within DHS's real property portfolio;
• provide alternate housing and consolidation plans to increase efficiency through joint use of DHS spaces while decreasing the reliance on and cost of leased space;
• concentrate on geographical areas with a significant DHS presence;
• examine the establishment of central DHS locations in each such geographical region and the co-location of DHS components based on their mission sets and responsibilities;
• identify opportunities to reduce overhead costs through co-location or consolidation of real property interests or mission support activities;
• manage the current Department Workspace Standard for Office Space in accordance with the DHS office workspace design process to develop the most efficient and effective spaces within the workspace standard net usable square foot ranges for all leases for office space entered into after enactment of this bill;
• define, based on square footage, what constitutes a major real property acquisition; and
• prioritize actions to be taken to improve the operations and management of DHS's real property inventory, based on life-cycle cost estimations.

The second five-year strategy shall contain related information, including: (1) the impact of such implementation on departmental operations and costs; and (2) the degree to which DHS established central DHS locations and co-located DHS components pursuant to the results of the required examination.

The implementation policies shall require components: (1) to certify to DHS that such components have complied with specified requirements before making any major real property decision or recommendation; and (2) acting through regional property managers, to report annually to DHS on underutilized space and identify space that may be made available for use by other components or federal agencies.

DHS may grant an exception to the workspace standard usable square foot ranges for specific office locations at which a reduction or elimination of otherwise underutilized space would negatively impact a component's ability to execute its mission based on readiness performance measures or would increase the cost of such space.

Each component shall identify a senior career employee to serve as the property manager for each geographic region. Each such manager shall: (1) serve as a single point of contact for DHS headquarters and other DHS components for real property matters, (2) provide data and any other support necessary for the DHS Regional Mission Support Coordinator strategic asset and portfolio planning and execution, and (3) provide to DHS annually data on each component's real property holdings.

DHS shall: (1) monitor components' adherence to the regional real property strategies and implementation policies; (2) annually review the data submitted to ensure all underutilized space is properly identified; (3) review and, if appropriate, approve component certifications before such components may make any major real property decision; and (4) annually provide information to Congress and to the Inspector General of DHS on its real property portfolio.

The Inspector General shall review the information submitted and issue findings regarding the effectiveness of the implementation of the DHS-wide policy and oversight efforts of the management of real property facilities, personal property, mobile assets, requirement and DHS's other material resources.