The chair of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency says the Trump administration is moving swiftly to start selling federal office buildings and end hundreds of federal leases.
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Federal real estate footprint shrinking in DC
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The chair of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration is moving swiftly to start selling federal office buildings and end hundreds of federal leases, which is having an impact on federal workers in the D.C. area.
“Federal agencies shouldn’t be maintaining empires at taxpayer expense,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representing Georgia’s 14th District, who led a field hearing in D.C. examining the federal real estate portfolio.
Greene said the government is “pouring billions of dollars into wasteful, empty office buildings,” and praised the administration and the General Services Administration for not wasting time in preparing to sell federally owned buildings and discontinue leases.
Through the GSA, Trump wants to reduce the amount of federally owned and leased property by 50%.
Greene said close to 700 leases have been canceled, saving an estimated $400 million.
Among the leases that have been terminated is one for a D.C. building at 1875 Pennsylvania Ave. for the parent company of Voice of America, the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
The administration is dismantling the agency and other government-funded news agencies.
The GSA itself is planning to move out of its current headquarters, to share space with the Department of Interior.
Greene and Republicans on the DOGE panel criticized purchases of expensive furniture and art for buildings owned by the government.
They also said picnic tables outfitted with solar power at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic were excessive. The CDC reportedly spent more than $230,000 on about 30 of the picnic tables.
Caution against selling off federal real estate too fast
David Marroni, who leads the physical infrastructure team for the Government Accountability Office, testified that changes involving federal real estate have ramped up in the months since Trump took office.
“This has disrupted the long-standing inertia that has slowed previous efforts to reshape the federal government’s real property holdings,” he said.
But he also cautioned against putting federal offices up for sale as quickly as possible.
“There is a risk of moving too fast,” Marroni said. “Most buildings have active tenants and relocating them could be costly.”
He urged that “speedy reductions” should be balanced with “deliberate planning.”
A Government Accountability Office survey in 2023 found that 17 federal agencies reported less than 25% of their office space was being used.
The ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury, was critical of the administration, claiming it has rushed its efforts to get rid of federal properties as it’s slashed the federal workforce.
“The idea of just putting out a list of hundreds of federal properties, including some of the most valuable real estate in Washington, D.C., on the federal mall — including the headquarters of every major federal agency — is not a planning process,” she said. “That is a fire sale of some of the most valuable real estate properties in Washington, D.C.”
Earlier this year, the administration released a list of more than 400 federal properties, initially listed as “non-core” assets, suggesting they needed to be sold. The list included the FBI and Department of Justice headquarters.
The list was later rescinded.
The current list on the GSA website, identified as assets for “accelerated disposition,” is much smaller.
Norton opposes moving federal agencies out of D.C.
During the hearing, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke out against moving various federal agencies out of the District.
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have spoken in favor of moving some agencies to other parts of the country, arguing it could save money.
“These relocations, as we saw during the first Trump administration, would harm the operations of these agencies and waste taxpayer dollars,” Norton said.
Norton recently introduced a bill that would prohibit federal agencies from being relocated, unless Congress passes legislation.
Greene at one point criticized the approval of about $200 million in initial costs related to the planned move of the FBI headquarters, now located in D.C., to Greenbelt, Maryland.
Trump has said he wants to keep the FBI in D.C., a view shared by Mayor Muriel Bowser.
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