The Agency Responsible for Inspecting Federal Buildings for Asbestos Is Failing to Do So

The federal government is running about a $828 billion budget deficit this fiscal year. One way to help reduce that is to sell unused federal office buildings. But that’s complicated by the fact that two-thirds of federal buildings, occupied or not, haven’t been checked for asbestos within the last five years.

The presence or absence of asbestos in a building is required information because the government would decide whether to abate the asbestos before a sale or inform potential buyers of the building’s status, according to Reason. Asbestos in a building would cut the number of potential buyers, and those who bid on it would probably offer less than if asbestos wasn’t a problem.

Inspection Policies Ignored

The federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) GAO reviewed the General Services Administration’s (GSA) policy on environmental contaminants in federal properties. The GSA manages federal properties.

The GSA may be responsible for cleaning up environmental contaminants (like asbestos) on a federal property it manages if the building is sold. If an agency wants to sell one of its unneeded buildings, it must tell GSA of contaminants so they can be removed or disclosed to the next owner.

GSA policy requires a baseline asbestos inspection for buildings built before 1998, with re-inspection surveys every five years unless a prior inspection finds no asbestos, according to a GAO report. Yearly inspections of buildings with asbestos are required to determine if the asbestos products’ condition changed.

GSA has fallen short of its requirements. GAO found it hasn’t completed asbestos inspections for about two-thirds of its buildings in the last five years. That means 638 out of 955 buildings were not in compliance. That includes:

• 228 buildings where the date of the last inspection is unknown
• 410 buildings whose last inspection was more than five years ago
• 214 of these buildings were inspected more than ten years ago

The report found that 15 of the 22 properties GSA sold during fiscal years 2018 through 2022 likely had asbestos or other contaminants. GSA stated this wasn’t an important issue since they can sell properties “as is” if they provide proper disclosures.

GSA Promises to Clean Up Its Act, Sort of

GSA responded to the GAO report by stating it was updating its policies away from annual inspections. They plan to prioritize inspections based on the risk of dangerously degraded asbestos in buildings. Testing would be done if asbestos products were found to be degraded or disturbed. But that risk assessment requires knowledge of all of GSA’s buildings, which it lacks due to its failure to inspect them regularly.