Trump inches closer to DC federal property sell-off with Ernst's help

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FIRST ON FOX: Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced legislation Thursday that would clear the way for Trump administration officials to sell underutilized federal buildings, Fox News Digital learned. 

"Despite President Trump calling federal employees back to work, vacant government buildings could easily be mistaken as future locations for Spirit Halloween stores," Ernst said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

"For too long, the entrenched bureaucracy has used red tape to prevent these ghost towns from being sold off," she continued. Her Disposal Act "immediately lists six prime pieces of D.C. real estate on the auction block and slashes through pointless regulations to fast-track the sale of the government’s graveyard of lifeless real estate to generate hundreds of millions of dollars and save taxpayers billions." 

Ernst is the founder and chair of the Senate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus, and first exposed the federal government's lack of use of its federal buildings back in 2023 when she released a "naughty list of no-show federal agencies" following the pandemic, when federal employees worked from home amid government-mandated shutdowns. 

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Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced legislation Oct. 30, 2025, that would clear the way for the Trump administration to sell underutilized federal buildings. (Reuters)

Dubbed the "Disposing of Inactive Structures and Properties by Offering for Sale And Lease (DISPOSAL) Act," the legislation works to renew efforts to sell six pieces of underutilized federal properties in Washington, D.C., that headquarter various federal agencies. 

The legislation specifically calls on the General Services Administration to sell the Frances Perkins Federal Building, home to the Department of Labor; the Department of Energy's James V. Forrestal Building; the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, which is home to the Office of Personnel Management; Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, where Housing and Urban Development was headquartered before announcing in June it planned to move; Department of Agriculture's headquarters at its South Building; and the Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building, headquarters of Health and Human Services. 

The James V. Forrestal Building, which houses the Department of Energy, on June 3, 2025, in Washington. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

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There are an estimated 7,700 vacant federal buildings nationwide and another 2,265 that are largely sitting empty, according to Ernst's office. 

The Office of Management and Budget reported in 2023 that the annual cost of operating federal buildings deemed "underutilized" sits at $81.346 million, while the General Services Administration reported in 2025 that deferred maintenance and repair backlogs at federal buildings exceeds $6 billion and will balloon to more than $20 billion in five years. The General Services Administration identified hundreds of "non-core" federal properties across the nation in March that could be put up for sale. 

Mold, cockroaches and undrinkable water also have plagued the federal buildings, according to various recent media reports. 

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The legislation would clear the path for the Trump administration to make additional sales down the line, should it pass. Sales of federal buildings are wrapped in red tape and procedures, with the bill working to streamline the process by mandating the sale of up to 20 additional federal buildings per calendar year, and charging the GSA chief with determining whether a sale or ground lease would be in the "best interests of the United States."

President Donald Trump's DOGE efforts to slim down the size of the federal government and remove overspending have been a hallmark of his second administration. Trump repeatedly has railed against federal employees who stopped reporting to the office since the pandemic, vowing during his joint address to Congress in March that "unaccountable bureaucracy" will end. 

"We have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work," he said. "My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately." 

Ernst and DOGE successfully mandated the sale of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in June, which headquartered Voice of America in a 1.2 million-square-foot building. Only 72 people worked in the building as of 2024, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

President Donald Trump's DOGE efforts to slim down the size of the federal government and remove overspending have been a hallmark of his second administration. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reported in February that the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in D.C., which can accommodate roughly 6,000 people, had become so desolate of employees during the Biden administration that it looked like an off-season Spirit Halloween store. Administration officials confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time that one HUD office even still had a business card left over from the first Trump administration still tacked on a white board when officials with the second administration reported to work following Trump's inauguration. 

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Ernst's October legislation follows a bill she introduced in June that called for the sale of six federal properties that would yield at least $400 million in revenue while canceling roughly $2.9 billion in overdue maintenance at the buildings.