The General Services Administration (GSA) establishes policy for and provides economical and efficient management of Government property and records, including construction and operation of buildings, procurement and distribution of supplies, utilization and disposal of property, and transportation, traffic, and communications management.
GSA's regulatory priorities for fiscal year 1999 are to continue to ensure our regulations reflect the President's philosophy of being consistent, sensible, and understandable and do not place an undue burden on the public.
GSA issues the Federal Property Management Regulations (FPMR) to prescribe Governmentwide regulations for real property, for personal property, and for other programs and activities within GSA's regulatory authority. The FPMR is intended to keep agencies abreast of the policies, regulatory requirements, and specific procedures, information, and standards that apply to the management of property and administrative services.
An agencywide review of the FPMR found the regulation was in need of improvement to streamline and clarify its contents. As a result, the FPMR is being converted into a new Federal Property and Administrative Services Regulation (FPASR). The FPASR will contain the policies and regulatory requirements which GSA issues for managing property and administrative services. Materials will appear in a plain language question and answer format. Nonregulatory materials, such as guidance, procedures, and standards currently found in the FPMR, will be available in separate documents, such as customer guides. These content changes will help conform the FPASR to the recommendations of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government to reduce regulations and use plain language in regulatory documents.
Additionally, working with Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government, GSA has already issued parts of the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) in the new plain language question and answer format that is easier for customers to use and understand.