Six D.C. area government buildings have been targeted for auction by U.S. Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst in her legislative proposal, the Federal Office Realignment and Sale of Assets for Leveraging Efficiency (FOR SALE) Act. The FOR SALE Act seeks to generate $400 million or more in revenue for the government, while also canceling costs, including $2.9 billion for overdue maintenance.
Among the facilities targeted to be sold on the auction block are the Department of Agriculture South Building, Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building (pictured above), Frances Perkins Federal Building, James V. Forrestal Building, Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, and Robert C. Weaver Federal Building.
After exposing that thousands of federal buildings are vacant or underutilized, Sen. Ernst’s measure seeks to downsize D.C.’s real estate portfolio, and save taxpayers billions of dollars in the process.
“Despite being the nation’s largest landlord, the federal government will never win a round of Monopoly,” said Sen. Ernst of her proposed legislation. “That’s because Uncle Sam, who is already $37 trillion in debt, refuses to sell off unused and unneeded properties that are nothing but money pits. I am putting these federal fixer uppers FOR SALE and ending the backwards game of Washington-opoly where taxpayers always lose!”
In December of 2023, Sen. Ernst unveiled a “naughty list” of federal agencies, topped by HUD and the Social Security Administration, both of which were using just 7% of their space. For her analysis, Sen. Ernst investigated 24 federal departments and agencies to determine the impact of telework on the delivery and response times of services. The General Services Administration (GSA) Inspector General responded to her request, and a few months later, as it announced the downsizing of 3.5 million square feet of federal buildings, which would save taxpayers more than $1 billion.
An August 2024 Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), revealed that Washington pays out over $81 million maintaining underutilized offices, including nearly 7,700 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are largely empty.
Click here for more on Sen. Ernst’s proposal, the For Sale Act of 2025.
