40 U.S.C. § 8735 — Sale of land by Secretary of the Interior

(a) Authority To Sell. With the National Capital^* Planning Commission's approval, the Secretary of the Interior may sell, by deed or other instrument, government real estate in D.C. under National Park Service jurisdiction that may no longer be needed for public purposes — if selling it serves the federal government's best interests. The land may be sold for cash or on a deferred-payment plan the Secretary approves, but the price cannot be less than what the government paid for it, and cannot be less than its current appraised value as the Secretary determines it.

(b) Sale to Highest Bidder. To sell a parcel under this section, the Secretary must arrange for public or private bids or offers, in whatever way the Secretary thinks appropriate. The Secretary must sell to whoever offers to pay the highest price, as long as that price is otherwise satisfactory. If the owner of land next to the parcel matches the highest price offered by anyone else, the parcel may instead be sold to that neighboring owner.

(c) Paying Expenses and Depositing Proceeds. The Secretary: (1) may pay the reasonable and necessary expenses of selling each parcel; and (2) must deposit the net proceeds of each sale into the Treasury, credited to the federal government and the District of Columbia in proportion to how much each one paid — or was obligated to pay, by reimbursement, at the time of purchase — toward the appropriations used to acquire the parcels.