§2819 Strategy and Assessment with Respect to Non-operational, Underutilized, and Other Department of Defense Facilities: Assessments of Historical Significance

Summary

Each Secretary in charge must make a plan to demolish facilities that are in poor or failing condition under the uniform index developed under section 2838 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (Public Law 118–31), that are not in operational use, or that the Secretary decides are underutilized. Each Secretary must also figure out the total cost to the United States to maintain facilities that are not in use and that are underutilized. To decide if a facility is underutilized, the Secretary must compare how much of the building is occupied to the building’s total square footage. By December 1, 2025, and every year after, each Secretary must review every facility they control that was built at least 25 years before the assessment year to see if it is historically significant now or will be within the next 25 years from the assessment date. If a facility is not and will not be historically significant, the Secretary must assess its condition, make an initial choice to modernize or demolish it within that 25-year period, and put the assessment and decision into the department’s digital facilities management system. If the Secretary later changes the historic finding or the plan, they must update that system. With the President’s fiscal year 2027 budget submission and each year afterward, each Secretary must brief the congressional defense committees on the demolition plan and the assessment results, including current demolition authorities, an implementation plan, and recommendations to reduce (1) the number of poor or failing facilities under the uniform index and (2) the total cost to the United States to maintain the assessed facilities.