Former GSA Administrator Emily Murphy told Fox News Digital that she is embracing Elon Musk’s DOGE plans to offload "vacant or underutilized federal spaces" as part of the Trump administration’s plan to cut wasteful spending. (Fox News Digital/Getty)
"GSA has to rightsize its lease portfolio. Otherwise, it's going to be paying rent on buildings it's not occupying, and it doesn't have the funding necessary to do that," Murphy said.
The GSA's cost-cutting efforts have already resulted in 794 lease terminations with a total of over $500 million of lease obligations being canceled, a source familiar with the GSA's actions told Fox News Digital.
DOGE AND AGENCIES CANCEL 200,000 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS
Murphy said terminating leases and selling unused office space will benefit the government twofold. First, it can shore up money to fund government agencies in the short term. Second, it will reduce long-term financial obligations.
"No taxpayer should want the government to be paying for space it doesn't use," Murphy said. "It's billions of dollars a year [that] go out in rent and real estate payments from the federal government. This is a substantial amount of money, and it's a real chance for GSA to do a great job for the American people and reduce the long-term financial obligations of the government and, frankly, free up money for agencies in the short term as well."
GSA has produced the most savings across federal agencies, according to the official DOGE website. (AP/Getty)
"GSA is essentially the government's management arm. It handles the real property, the procurement, many of the shared services the government has, the vehicles in the government's fleet. It runs a lot of the back office functions of the government. It was created about 75 years ago to specifically take on that challenge, so that agencies didn't have to all be doing the same repetitive tasks again and again," Murphy said.
Stephen Ehikian was sworn in as acting administrator and deputy administrator of the GSA on Inauguration Day.
"Under the Trump-Vance administration, I will return the GSA to its core purpose of making government work smarter and faster," said Ehikian. "Moving forward, GSA will be laser-focused on driving an efficient government and enabling our sister agencies to provide better service to taxpayers at lower costs."
GSA has produced the most savings across federal agencies, according to the official DOGE website. A webpage titled "Non-core property list (Coming Soon)" on the GSA’s website outlines the agency’s ongoing effort to save on government buildings.
The General Services building in Washington, D.C. (Getty)
"We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal. Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions," it says on GSA’s website.
The Associated Press reported that dozens of federal office and building leases will be terminated by June 20, with hundreds more expected in the coming months. AP also reported last week that GSA published a list of more than 440 federal properties the government was planning to offload. The list was then revised to include only 320 buildings before the webpage was ultimately updated to its current "coming soon" language.
Musk has lamented about unused office buildings on his personal X account and DOGE’s official account.
"Still *way* too many leases on unused buildings," Musk posted on Feb. 25.
"Agreed! Today, lease cancellations on vacant/underutilized buildings are up from ~257 to ~440, with annual rent savings increasing from ~$100M to ~$171M. Still plenty of available office space for the current workforce," DOGE replied to Musk the following day.
"Today, the Federal Government exceeded $100M in annual rent savings through cancellations of 250+ vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3M+ square feet. With ~7,250 current leases, there is plenty of available office space for the current workforce," DOGE announced in a post on Feb. 25.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Crazy that the government was just renting and paying for upkeep services of hundreds of empty buildings!" Musk replied.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-trump-official-supports-gsas-plans-offload-government-buildings