- DOGE has removed over 100 buildings from its list of “lease terminations.”
- The reduction amounts to $150 million less in claimed savings.
- DOGE has been targeting federal buildings, and some lawmakers have been pushing back.
One of many federal expenses on DOGE’s chopping block is the leases of government buildings. But adjustments to DOGE’s own tracking dashboard indicate it’s not winning every battle on that front.
As of Wednesday morning, DOGE listed 793 federal lease terminations on its website, claiming a total savings of around $500 million. But by later that morning, 136 leases had been removed from that list, cutting DOGE’s claimed savings by around $150 million.
Even as the Trump administration has ordered once-remote federal workers to return to the office, the Department of Government Efficiency, championed by Elon Musk, has been working to cancel the leases of buildings that Musk has claimed are “unused” or sitting vacant.
It’s not clear which leases were removed from the list, or why, and a spokesperson for the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, declined to comment on the removals of the lease terminations from DOGE’s website.
The GSA previously said it was reversing over 100 lease terminations, The New York Times reported earlier this week. When reached for comment by Business Insider, a GSA spokesperson did not comment on specific numbers but said the agency “is reviewing all options to optimize the federal footprint and building utilization,” “sending letters of intent to customer agencies to inform them GSA is considering lease termination,” and “actively managing lease contracts by leveraging existing contract cancellation rights.”
The spokesperson added that in instances where current leases are deemed the most suitable, the GSA will adjust its approach by “either rescinding termination notices or, in some cases, not issuing them at all.”
Among the lease terminations still on DOGE’s list as of Thursday are 27 Food and Drug Administration buildings, including one in Newark, New Jersey with an annual lease of over $630,000, which DOGE says without providing further detail will amount to over $2 million in savings.
The list also includes buildings for the Department of Education, Federal Trade Commission, National Park Service, and dozens of other federal agencies. But the exact status of each “lease termination” is not clear for every item on the list — some buildings include as much detail as when the lease termination was sent and when it will be terminated, while others are simply marked as “termination via mass mod.”
Regardless, some lawmakers have found success pushing back against DOGE’s attempt to shut down their state’s buildings.
For example, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said in a statement last week that after advocating for several federal buildings in his state, DOGE agreed not to end their leases.
“After working closely with DOGE and the Administration, I am thrilled to announce that common sense has prevailed, as the National Weather Center in Norman, the Social Security Administration Office in Lawton, and the Indian Health Services Office in Oklahoma City will remain operational in Oklahoma,” Cole said.
Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico also spoke out against the GSA’s plan to discontinue the lease of a Department of Energy building in New Mexico responsible for managing an underground repository of nuclear waste, saying closure of the facility would put national and environmental security at risk. That lease termination was later revoked, Luján said in a statement reported by The New York Times.
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has stumbled over what federal properties to get rid of.
In early March, the GSA published a list identifying over 440 “non-core” federal properties that could be sold — including the headquarters of both the FBI and Justice Department — but within a day, the agency took the list down, the New York Times reported. Now, the agency’s webpage says the list of properties is “coming soon.”
In total, DOGE so far claims its cost-cutting efforts are saving taxpayers an estimated $115 billion, but in its 2 months of existence, it has already downgraded its savings several times.
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