FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—Selling off unused or underused federal property could save taxpayers $3 billion in deferred maintenance costs, and more than $100 million in operation costs each year, according to one government report.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chairwoman of the Senate DOGE Caucus, introduced legislation to expedite the sales of these properties.  

“Why should taxpayers be stuck with billion-dollar bills for bureaucrats to hold onto empty buildings when they are keeping the roofs over their own homes? That’s why I’ve worked to eliminate Washington’s bloated real estate portfolio,” Ernst told The Daily Signal in a statement.  

The DOGE Caucus supports the mission started by the White House Department of Government Efficiency that sought cost-cutting measures in the federal government.  

Ernst’s bill is the Disposing of Inactive Structures and Properties by Offering for Sale And Lease Act, or the DISPOSAL Act. 

It calls for the General Services Administration to sell buildings with regulatory and procedural exemptions, such as environmental reviews, historic preservation reviews, and other matters.  

“By fast-tracking basic maintenance and construction projects, my new legislation will play a critical role in ending the entrenched bureaucracy’s excessive regulations and pointless red tape to take empty, expensive buildings off the taxpayer’s dime,” Ernst said.  

A December report by the Government Accountability Office noted the burden for taxpayers of the properties targeted for sale.  

“In March 2025, GSA announced it would begin disposing of federally owned office buildings using what it described as an accelerated approach,” the GAO report says.  

“As of November 2025, GSA had identified 45 federal properties—many of which were previously identified for disposal—for this accelerated approach,” the GAO report continues. “GSA estimates that disposing of these properties will reduce the federal government’s real property inventory by 14.6 million square feet and save $106 million in annual operations and $3 billion in deferred maintenance costs.” 

The government has a total of 23.28 million square feet of underused office space it owns with annual operating and maintenance costs of $67.1 million, according to an August 2024 report from the Office of Management and Budget.  

It has another 766,000 square feet of underused leased space with an annual lease cost of $13.6 million and annual operating and maintenance costs of $481,000. That brings the total annual cost for all of these properties to $81.3 million, according to the Office of Management and Budget report. 

Ernst has already introduced legislation that calls for several specific federal properties to be auctioned off.  

This bill continues that effort. Targeted properties include: the 1 million-square-foot Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building, which houses the Department of Health and Human Services; the 1.8 million-square-foot Frances Perkins Federal Building for the Department of Labor; the 1.8 million-square-foot James V. Forrestal Building for the Department of Energy; and the 810,834-square-foot Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building that houses the Office of Personnel Management.

The measurements are according to the federal Public Building Reform Board. 

The post Billions in Tax Dollars Pay for Empty Federal Buildings appeared first on The Daily Signal.