New SPACE Act Mandates GSA Consult with Agencies to Boost Federal Office Sharing Within Six Months

The Shared Property Agency Collaboration and Engagement Act of 2025, or the SPACE Act, is all about making the federal government’s real estate footprint a whole lot smarter. Basically, if you’re an agency renting space in a big federal building, the General Services Administration (GSA)—the folks who manage those buildings—now has to sit down and actually talk to you about how to share space better.

The Mandate: Making Federal Neighbors Talk

This bill section directs the GSA Administrator to actively collaborate with federal agencies that are current tenants. The goal is to crank up the volume on space sharing and 'collocation'—the policy term for having different agencies work side-by-side in the same building. Think of it like a massive corporate landlord finally being forced to coordinate with all its tenants to see if they can share the breakroom and conference rooms, potentially saving everyone money. Specifically, the GSA must figure out what concerns tenants have about sharing space, develop new standards to make sharing easier, and even look at how specialized areas—like labs or equipment rooms—could be utilized more efficiently across agency lines.

The Real-World Impact: Less Empty Desks, More Efficiency

Why does this matter? Because federal real estate is expensive, and often, agencies aren't using their space efficiently. If the GSA can successfully implement these new standards, it could lead to significant cost savings for taxpayers. Imagine Agency A having a massive, underutilized lab facility that Agency B needs only occasionally. The SPACE Act requires the GSA to develop the guidelines to make that sharing happen smoothly. For the GSA staff, this means a new, complex project involving developing detailed standards and mediating between agencies—it's a lot of administrative lift. For agencies with specialized facilities, like research arms, this means they might have to open up their unique spaces to others, which could be a logistical headache, but ultimately lead to better resource utilization.

Accountability and the Deadline

This isn't just a suggestion; it comes with a hard deadline. The GSA isn't allowed to just go through the motions. They must set clear, measurable goals for tracking the success of these shared-space arrangements. And they have to report their progress back to Congress—specifically the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee—within six months of the law’s enactment. This mandated reporting provides a critical layer of accountability, ensuring the GSA is serious about improving efficiency and not just filing away the new rules. While the requirement to look at specialized areas is a bit open-ended—it just says they have to 'look at' it, not necessarily force the sharing—the overall push is clearly toward streamlining federal operations and cutting down on unnecessary overhead.