Federal agencies used only 12% of their headquarters space in the District of Columbia last year, according to a new report that confirms government offices in the nation’s capital have become ghost towns.
The Public Buildings Reform Board, an independent agency with a mandate to dispose of unused federal properties, said workers sent home by pandemic shutdown policies haven’t come back to the office. Occupancy rates last year were less than one-third of what they were in 2019.
The Department of Agriculture, with space for more than 7,400 employees at its headquarters, averaged just 456 workers, or about 6% occupancy. The Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also came in at less than 10%.
Even the General Services Administration, the federal government’s chief landlord, operated at just 14% capacity in its headquarters building on F Street NW, with 359 workers a day out of a capacity of 2,532 seats.
The best-performing agency in the study, the U.S. Agency for International Development, was using just 26% of its space.
PBRB member David L. Winstead said the report shows agencies have failed to heed President Biden’s call last year to get employees back into their buildings.
“That’s just not happening, and GSA does not have adequate funding for the maintenance of many federally owned buildings in the District,” said Mr. Winstead, a commercial real estate lawyer who served as Maryland’s transportation secretary under Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening. “The reality is that where there’s a building with deferred maintenance that isn’t being utilized, it could be sold and the revenues allocated back to GSA for other real estate needs, instead of taxpayers paying for it.”
The report comes as D.C. lawmakers grapple with an unprecedented funding crisis driven by fewer federal workers shopping, dining and working downtown on weekdays since the outbreak of COVID-19.
“In the past, the presence of federal workers boosted the District’s economy and made the city recession-proof,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the nonpartisan D.C. Policy Center. “These numbers show that the presence of the federal government is now weighing down the District’s economy as empty buildings displace economic activity that would otherwise be happening downtown.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed deep cuts to social programs such as affordable housing grants and several tax increases — including a gradual sales tax hike — to offset $800 million in budget deficits for fiscal 2025, which begins Oct. 1.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats are pushing for agencies to figure out how much space they need and how to get rid of what they don’t.
“This new report confirms Biden has turned Washington into a ghost town,” said Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Small Business Committee. “You are more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat at some locations. It’s time to get the ghost employees back to their old haunts and Washington back to work.”
The PBRB examined daily cellphone activity lasting more than 150 minutes and repeated visit patterns at government buildings to reach its estimates. It said that’s the same method used to estimate occupancy in commercial real estate.
The study ran from January to September 2023, with comparison data from the same period in 2019.
According to the report, federal workers have long used their D.C. offices less than private-sector workers. Established under a 2016 federal law, the PBRB formulated its first recommendations for consolidating properties in 2019.
“Even before the pandemic, of the federal properties analyzed, federal occupancy was low, particularly in Washington D.C.,” the report noted.
The PBRB sent the interim report to Congress, the GSA and the Office of Management and Budget on March 21. As of Thursday, it had not received a response from any of them, but a GSA spokesperson told The Times agencies are trying to readjust.
“Many agencies are assessing their long-term workspace needs, and GSA is focused on partnering with them to figure out the best solution for their mission while maximizing benefits to communities and taxpayers,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The spokesperson pointed to $425 million of funding in Mr. Biden’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget for GSA to “reconfigure and renovate federal buildings to better utilize space and to expedite the disposition of unneeded federal facilities.”
GSA has announced a plan to dispose of 23 federal properties totaling 3.5 million square feet, which the agency estimates would save the government $1 billion in maintenance costs over 10 years.
The Energy Department was the worst performer in the report, showing a daily occupancy rate of just eight people. PBRB said it suspected that data could not be correct but added that the department hadn’t responded to its inquiries.
In an email to The Times, the Energy Department disputed the findings and pointed to a Jan. 19 email that White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients sent to federal agency heads. That email praised the departments of Veterans Affairs, Energy, Defense and State and the U.S. Agency for International Development for meeting the Biden administration’s 50% office work goal last year.
The Energy Department also pointed to an October report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ chief watchdog, that found it had a 25% use rate at its headquarters, or about the middle of the pack for federal agencies in the Washington area.
For the most part, the PBRB numbers confirmed the gist of the GAO’s work, which examined occupancy rates early last year and found agencies averaging roughly 20% use and no agency operating at 50% or above.
GAO used the swipe-card data of people entering the buildings on selected weeks in January, February and March.
The GAO survey found the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s building was 93% vacant, as was the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Baltimore. The GSA had an 89% vacancy rate.
Investigators said agencies offered several excuses for not wanting to give up space, including convenience and power. Having to share space was seen as an acknowledgment that an agency wasn’t as important as others.
Even within the agencies, the GAO found divisions balked at sharing offices and conference rooms, for the same reasons.
Federal agencies challenged the GAO’s work.
“That is not correct. That’s not even close to correct,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told senators in February.
He said 82% of his department’s work hours are done in person and at the office.
He also bristled at the notion that not working in the office meant skimping on their duties.
“To suggest that they’re not working, I think, is an affront to the hardworking members of the USDA family,” Mr. Vilsack said. “Please don’t tell me the work’s not getting done because I can show you that it is.”
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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