The Trump administration has put over 300 federal buildings on the chopping block in its frenzy to cut down on government spending.
The General Services Administration released Tuesday a list of “non-core” properties that have been designated for disposal, including the Major General Emmett J. Bean Federal Center in Indiana, the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center in Georgia, and the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in California.
The agency said in a statement that it owned and maintained over 440 non-core assets comprising nearly 80 million rentable square feet. The Associated Press and Politico also reported late Tuesday afternoon that the list included the headquarters of the FBI and the Justice Department.
As of Tuesday evening, however, it appeared that the GSA had pared down the list on its website to from 443 to 320 buildings. The FBI and DOJ offices, along with other buildings in Washington, D.C., were no longer on the updated list. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Politico about the changes.
“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” GSA said. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues.”
The agency said it would consider non-core assets for divestment from government ownership “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.”
GSA added that it had already identified “core” federally-owned assets within its portfolio, such as courthouses, land ports of entry, and facilities critical to national defense and law enforcement.
“These core assets are intrinsically significant to the mission of the federal government and will be retained for long-term needs,” it said.
Last month, GSA regional managers were ordered by leadership in Washington to terminate leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide, according to the AP.
An employee who spoke to the AP said they were told to aim for terminating as many as 300 leases in a day.
