Government Waste

One Federal Agency's Unused Office Space Costs 'Hundreds of Millions of Dollars' Per Year

According to a new report, nearly 90 percent of the Department of Transportation's owned or leased buildings are more than half-empty.

Joe Lancaster | 7.17.2026 10:55 AM

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In one of his day-one acts, President Donald Trump ordered all executive branch agencies to "terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis," barring individual exemptions.

Despite that, a new report found that one department's office spaces are "significantly underutilized," and it's costing taxpayers a fortune.

"The Department of Transportation (DOT) and its component agencies are
underutilizing their office space department-wide," according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies (USE IT) Act, passed in 2023, set a required minimum 60 percent occupancy rate for all federal agencies and empowered the government to "consolidate federal agency headquarters buildings in the National Capital region," if necessary, to hit that benchmark.

According to the report, when GAO auditors checked DOT facilities between August 25 and September 19, 2025, they "found that 89 percent of DOT's 189 office buildings, including the DOT and the........

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