§554 Property for Development or Operation of a Port Facility

Summary

Lets the General Services Administrator or the Secretary of Defense assign surplus federal land, buildings, and equipment to the Secretary of Transportation when that property is recommended for building or running a port facility. A transfer to a State or local government can then be made for that port work unless the Administrator or the Secretary of Defense objects within 30 days after being told about the planned transfer. Defines two terms: “base closure law” (see 10 U.S.C. 101(a)(17)) and “State” (includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Northern Mariana Islands). Before a transfer, the Secretary of Transportation must find the site is in an area of serious economic trouble after talking with the Secretary of Labor, approve an economic development plan after talking with the Secretary of Commerce, and send Congress an explanatory statement like those under section 545(e). Transfers are made without payment to the federal government. The deed must require the property be used and kept for the port purpose forever or it can revert to the Government, and include other rules the Secretary of Transportation sets. The Secretary of Transportation enforces, fixes, or releases those rules and can give up government interests if the property no longer serves the purpose.