Four years post-pandemic 75% of federal agencies are utilizing less than half of their allocated office space. The federal government maintains a massive real estate presence in Washington, DC, and yet very few of the workers are showing up each day.
Earlier this month, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, called out the federal government for very few federal workers reporting to work in person despite the pandemic being four years in the rearview mirror.
Aderholt points out that despite very low space utilization, all of these buildings must still be maintained, heated, and cooled at a huge cost to the taxpayer. He says it is well past time for federal employees to return to the office like most Americans.
“We’re just trying to get back to regular order. The way it was before COVID and trying to make sure when we have all of these buildings in Washington, D.C. they’re being cooled and they’re being heated in the winter. Yet, there are very few people in them. That’s really a waste of federal resources,” Aderholt said in an interview with Fox Business.
Taxpayers shell out about $5 billion a year to lease offices for federal employees, plus another $2 billion to operate those buildings and the more than 500 million square feet of office space that you, the taxpayer, own.
Only 6% of federal workers are working full-time in the offices and 30% are fully remote according to a Federal News Network report. Some agencies are using less than 10% of their allotted workspace.
The Department of Education utilizes just 17% of its office space and the Health and Human Services Department just 19% reports an Office of Resource Management study. Yet, 100% of this space must be maintained all of the time with taxpayer dollars.
And, many of these now work-from-home federal workers are still receiving Washington-area locality pay boosts to offset the cost of working in DC. If they are not coming into the office, that bump in pay should be removed say House Republicans. They have called for an accounting of these costs.
Budget directives introduced by House Republicans will require federal agencies to publicly post how many employees come to work in person in Washington. Tracking and posting these space utilization numbers is a way to shine a light on this expensive situation for the taxpayer and also pressure agencies to bring their workforce back to the office.
It is not just House Republicans who want federal workers back to work or the space utilized in another way. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), Mayor of DC, has demanded that the Biden White House take “decisive action” to get federal workers back to the office or “realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government,” nonprofits, businesses or anyone willing to repurpose the space.
DC is feeling the loss of so many daily workers who used to support all the restaurants, shops, and other commercial outlets before and after work and during lunch. With so many workers absent from DC, businesses are struggling and many are closing. Thriving cities need people living and using all of the city every day.