Examining the Federal Protective Service : are Federal facilities secure? : hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, second session, May 21, 2014.

FPS, within DHS’s NPPD, conducts physical security and law enforcement activities for about 9,000 federal facilities and the millions of employees or visitors who work in or visit these facilities. FPS moved from GSA to DHS’s ICE in 2003 and to NPPD in 2009. GAO has reported that FPS faced challenges in each location. Legislation enacted in November 2018 requires DHS to review placement options for FPS and could result in FPS moving again within DHS or to another executive branch agency. GAO was asked to review issues related to organizational placement options for FPS. This report examines (1) the potential effects of FPS’s placement in selected agencies and (2) steps DHS has taken to assess placement options for FPS. GAO identified five key organizational placement criteria based on prior work and identified eight agencies as potential placement options. The agencies were selected because they have the largest number of law enforcement officers or perform physical security, among other reasons. DHS should identify the expectations for changing FPS’s placement and take steps to fully evaluate placement options.

FPS's primary mission is to protect the almost 9,000 federal facilities that are held or leased by the General Services Administration. FPS also manages the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) delegations of authority (delegations) program, which involves, among other things, reviewing requests by agencies to protect their own facilities instead of FPS and making recommendations to DHS about whether to grant, renew, or rescind such delegations. In response to direction in the conference report accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012, FPS prepared its Interim Plan that outlines FPS's process for reviewing existing and newly requested delegations. GAO was asked to review FPS's management of this program. This report covers (1) the extent to which FPS's delegations program meets select federal standards and (2) whether FPS has followed its Interim Plan in reviewing delegations. GAO reviewed FPS's 2012 Interim Plan and data on delegations; compared FPS's Interim Plan to federal standards; and analyzed the six requests for new or renewed delegations FPS reviewed from June 2012 through March 2014.

In FY 2007, the fed. government¿s real property portfolio comprised 446,000 buildings with an area of 3.3 billion square feet and a replacement value of $772.8 billion. Contents of this report: (1) Fed. Facility Security Levels; (2) Interagency Security Committee; (3) Exec. Branch Facility Security: Fed. Protective Service (FPS): Historical Overview and Current FPS Authority; FPS¿s Use of Contract Security Guards; (4) Fed. Court Facility Security; (5) Supreme Court; (6) Coordination of Fed. Building Security; (7) Fed. Building Security Issues: FPS¿s Operations, Use and concerns of Contract Security Guards: FPS¿s Oper.; Coord. and Sharing of Fed. Building Security Info.; Facility Security Committees; Appropriations and Resources.

The Federal Protective Service's (FPS's) primary mission is to protect the almost 9,000 federal facilities that are held or leased by the General Services Admin. (GSA). FPS also manages the Dept. of Homeland Security's (DHS's) delegations of authority (delegations) program, which involves, among other things, reviewing requests by agencies to protect their own facilities instead of FPS and making recommendations to DHS about whether to grant, renew, or rescind such delegations. FPS's Interim Plan outlines FPS's process for reviewing existing and newly requested delegations. This report reviews (1) the extent to which FPS's delegations program meets select federal standards; and (2) whether FPS has followed its Interim Plan in reviewing delegations. Tables. This is a print on demand report.