The Trump administration has identified more than 440 federal properties for closure or sale as part of its effort to downsize government, AP reported Tuesday, before abruptly revising the list hours later to just 320 properties with notable Washington D.C. buildings removed.
According to AP, the initial list published by the General Services Administration (GSA) included some of America's most recognizable buildings, including the J. Edgar Hoover Building housing FBI headquarters and the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building. The first list also included the Old Post Office building, where President Donald Trump once operated a hotel, and headquarters of numerous agencies including the Department of Labor and Department of Housing and Urban Development.
After publishing the extensive list of 443 properties, the administration issued a revised version with only 320 entries, none in Washington D.C. When questioned about the changes, the GSA did not immediately provide explanations for why so many properties had been removed.
Properties targeted outside Washington included the Major General Emmett J. Bean Federal Center in Indiana, the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco, and the US mission to the United Nations in New York, spanning nearly every state in the country.
"We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal," the GSA said of the original list, according to the news report. Selling the properties "ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal space," and "helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions."
The property designations are part of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's unprecedented initiative to reduce the federal workforce and cut government spending. They claim selling these buildings could save hundreds of millions of dollars while dramatically reshaping how major Congressional-funded Cabinet agencies function. The administration has also ordered federal workers to report to offices daily.
Eliminating federal office space has been a top priority for the new administration. Last month, GSA regional managers were instructed to begin terminating leases on all approximately 7,500 federal offices nationwide. In a follow-up meeting, they were reportedly told to aim for terminating up to 300 leases daily, according to an employee who spoke anonymously fearing retaliation.
The administration is also seeking to sell federal buildings named after civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta and Rosa Parks in Detroit, as well as the Montgomery, Alabama bus station that was crucial in the civil rights movement and now operates as the Freedom Rides Museum.
The GSA's Public Buildings Service said most properties deemed unnecessary are office spaces. "Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce," they explained. The GSA indicated it will consider the buildings' futures "in an orderly fashion to ensure taxpayers no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space, or the significant maintenance costs associated with long-term building ownership – potentially saving more than $430 million in annual operating costs."
According to the agency, the 443 buildings initially listed span almost 80 million rentable square feet and are currently owned and maintained by the GSA.
