---
kind: "section"
citation: "40 U.S.C. § 542"
title: "40"
title_heading: "Public Buildings, Property, and Works"
number: "542"
heading: "Care and handling"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/40/542"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Federal Property and Administrative Services"
  - "Chapter 5 — Property Management"
  - "Subchapter III — Disposing of Property"
---

# §542. Care and handling


The disposal of [surplus property](/usc/40/102.md?p=10), and the [care and handling](/usc/40/102.md?p=1) of the [property](/usc/40/102.md?p=9) pending disposition, may be performed by the General Services Administration or, when the Administrator of General Services decides, by the [executive agency](/usc/40/102.md?p=4) in possession of the [property](/usc/40/102.md?p=9) or by any other [executive agency](/usc/40/102.md?p=4) that agrees.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 107–217, Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1086.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 542 | 40:484(b). | June 30, 1949, ch. 288, title II, § 203(b), 63 Stat. 385. |