USDA HQ Wastes Two-Thirds Post-Trump RTO

Clear Facts

• Agriculture Department uses only a third of D.C. headquarters space despite doubled occupancy after Trump’s return-to-office mandate.
• Average utilization across 15 USDA facilities rose from 15% pre-RTO to 36% post-RTO on February 28, 2025.
• Sen. Joni Ernst demands selling underused federal buildings to save taxpayer dollars and drain the swamp.

Trump’s order more than doubled daily occupancy at USDA facilities from Biden-era telework levels. Yet headquarters remains vastly underutilized at just 33% capacity.

“Across the selected facilities, average daily occupancy rose from 1,537 before the Return to the Office (RTO) on February 28, 2025, to 3,745 after the RTO. Additionally, USDA used 15 percent of the design capacity of the selected spaces pre-RTO and 36 percent post-RTO,” the inspector general report states.

Sen. Ernst praised Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and GSA Administrator Edward Forst for enforcing attendance.

“After Biden’s USDA denied allegations that the headquarters had become a ‘ghost town,’ Secretary [of Agriculture Brooke] Rollins and GSA Administrator [Edward] Forst took action to ensure civil servants are showing up, so taxpayers’ dollars and space are being used wisely,” Ernst said.

Nearly two-thirds of space sits idle even after doubling employees onsite. Ernst pushes her DISPOSAL Act to offload vacant D.C. properties.

“Even after President Trump and USDA doubled the number of employees in the office, nearly two thirds of the space is still unused!” Ernst continued. “It’s time to put this abandoned building on the chopping block to save millions for taxpayers and keep draining the swamp by moving federal workers closer to the people they serve.”

Low occupancy breeds health risks like Legionella from stagnant water and skyrockets carbon emissions.

“The [Public Buildings Reform Board] adds, ‘In addition to high costs, other problems with low utilization rates include environmental and health impacts,” the report states. “The per person carbon emissions from heating and cooling nearly empty buildings, not to mention energy costs, are indefensible. Severely underutilized buildings can also pose health risks to their occupants as GSA recently discovered with Legionella outbreaks in many of its buildings when water stagnated in their plumbing systems from underutilization.’”

Time to sell wasteful federal real estate and redirect funds to American priorities.

Read Full Report

Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.