Early in the Trump administration, the Department of Government Efficiency directed the General Services Administration to cancel hundreds of leases for governmentwide office space.

GSA officials say they successfully terminated hundreds of leases this year, but far fewer than goals set by DOGE.

The latest data from the Government Accountability Office shows GSA carried out 260 lease terminations, saving about $112 million in annual costs. GAO’s findings match up with data available on DOGE’s website. Several sources, including employees at GSA’s Public Buildings Service, told Federal News Network that overall, the agency finalized about 30% of the approximately 900 lease terminations it sent to landlords earlier this year.

GSA began its mass termination of governmentwide leases in the early days of the Trump administration. But by March, the agency began walking back hundreds of those lease terminations, after officials discovered that closing down these offices would impact public-facing benefits and services.

These updated figures come at a time when government officials are taking stock of DOGE’s impact, and whether agencies came close to achieving the Trump administration’s government efficiency goals.

Former DOGE leader Elon Musk told former DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller in a recent interview that DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts were “somewhat successful,” but said he wouldn’t do it over again.

“We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful,” he told Miller.

Andrew Heller, GSA’s acting Public Buildings Service Commissioner, told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that the agency disposed of 90 properties owned by the federal government in fiscal 2025, eliminating 3 million square feet from the government’s real estate portfolio.

Heller told lawmakers that GSA has identified another 45 properties for “accelerated” disposal. But GSA hasn’t updated its list of properties since May.

“The government no longer needs, nor can it afford to maintain the amount of real estate it currently owns. With your support and with the necessary resources, GSA is well-positioned to right-size the portfolio to support this shared goal,” Heller said at a public buildings subcommittee hearing.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers praised GSA for its cost-cutting efforts, but agreed it still faces major work in shrinking the federal government’s massive real estate portfolio.

“That’s an achievement, but there was also significant chaos and mixed messaging surrounding the disposal of buildings and the termination of leases,” Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) said at Thursday’s hearing.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) called DOGE a “textbook example of what happens when you chase cuts without understanding value.”

“It drove federal property decisions at a speed and scale that outran planning operational needs and basic due diligence. Agencies were told to vacate buildings before replacement space was ready. These decisions were driven by targets and assumptions, not by reliable, validated information about how federal space was being used or which functions depended on it,” Stanton said.

Subcommittee Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said GSA is “taking aggressive action to reduce costs,” but said GSA needs to address its growing maintenance backlog.

“Shaving off excess, however, will not unilaterally rectify the numerous challenges we face in federal property, as the maintenance of the buildings is becoming increasingly costly to keep up,” he said.

Under the USE IT Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law at the end of his term, all agencies, starting in January 2026, must be able to show that their buildings meet at least a 60% utilization rate, or come up with plans to relocate. Next month, GSA and the Office of Management and Budget will submit plans to consolidate federal agency headquarters in the national capital area to meet the minimum 60% building occupancy rate target.

The Trump administration has already used this benchmark as justification for moving the Department of Housing and Urban Development out of its headquarters, and moving HUD employees to the National Science Foundation headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

More broadly, GSA is trying to move more agencies to leased office space, because the agency faces a multi-billion-dollar maintenance and repair backlog on buildings it owns.

Michael Capuano, a member of the Public Buildings Reform Board, which advises GSA on underutilized federal properties it should sell, told the subcommittee that about $50 billion is needed to address a backlog of deferred maintenance and repairs in federal buildings. GSA currently receives about $600 million annually to address those needs. Given those spending levels, Capuano said GSA’s portfolio would have to shrink by about 80% to keep up with its maintenance backlog.

“Everyone realizes this is unrealistic and undesirable,” he said.

Capuano said shifting agencies out of government-owned buildings and into leased office space “does solve many problems.” Agencies, he said, can more easily expand or shrink the amount of office space they need with leased space, and “taxpayers are not forced to pay for empty space that needs maintenance.”

GSA is asking Congress for $365 million for an “optimization” fund that would help it dispose of more underperforming buildings.

“We need to get access to this funding to make some of these improvements happen,” Heller said.

GAO added federal real estate to its list of high-risk federal programs this year, citing a ballooning backlog of maintenance and repair needs. According to GAO, the backlog more than doubled between fiscal 2017 and 2024, from $170 billion to $340 billion.

“Right-sizing the federal government’s real property holdings is long overdue,” Heather Krause, GAO’s manager director of physical infrastructure, told lawmakers.

GSA is trying to manage its governmentwide real estate portfolio with a smaller workforce.  The agency started this year with more than 5,600 employees, but cut its workforce by about 45% under the Trump administration. Heller said GSA rescinded layoffs for about 400 PBS employees, and that almost 300 employees agreed to return to work. He told lawmakers the agency is taking a closer look to see if there are any “additional gaps in our workforce.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said there are some federal buildings in D.C. that GSA should offload, but said the agency “has not been coordinating closely enough with D.C. on the disposal of federal buildings.”

“These disposals would save the federal government money, generate tax revenue for D.C., increase housing supply and lead to new mixed-use neighborhoods,” Norton said. “I am deeply concerned that the Trump administration has not developed a plan to dispose of federal buildings in D.C. in a manner that benefits both federal taxpayers and D.C.”

Capuano said that incomplete data makes it harder for the board to identify underutilized federal buildings. GAO reported in 2020 that 67% of addresses in the Federal Real Property Profile were incorrectly formatted or incomplete.

“None of us are in favor of leaving empty buildings in the portfolio. However, it is difficult to locate them,” he said.

The PBRB is set to disband in May 2026. Capuano recommended that Congress either reauthorize the board to continue its work, or pass legislation to create a similar entity, “if for no other reason, to keep the other agencies’ feet to the fire.”

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