The administration initially released a list of over 440 federal properties identified for potential closure or sale, stating they were deemed “not core to government operations,” The Associated Press reports.
The list included the FBI headquarters and the Department of Justice building. However, a revised list was issued hours later, containing 320 properties and excluding those located in Washington, D.C. The General Services Administration (GSA), which published both lists, has not yet responded to requests for clarification regarding the changes.
The initial list encompassed federal buildings, courthouses, offices, and other properties across numerous states. Prominent examples included the J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI Headquarters) and the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., as well as 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.
The GSA has stated the identification of these properties is part of an effort to reduce costs associated with underutilized federal space. The agency estimates that selling the designated buildings could save taxpayers over $430 million annually.
The administration has made reducing federal office space a priority. The Department of Government Efficiency has listed canceled office leases, raising questions about the future of services provided from those locations. Properties on the list include a federal building and courthouse in Los Angeles; a federal building in Oklahoma City; an IRS computing center in West Virginia; and IRS service centers in multiple states.
Buildings bearing the names of civil rights figures, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building in Atlanta, the Rosa Parks Federal Building in Detroit, and the Montgomery, Alabama bus station that now serves as the Freedom Rides Museum, are also under consideration.
The GSA has stated it will consider the future of these properties “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.” The 443 buildings initially listed span almost 80 million rentable square feet.
