‘You go around Washington and see all these buildings with the Department of Education. We want to move education back to the states, where it belongs,’ Trump said at a Cabinet meeting. The Trump administration has given federal agencies until mid-April to submit plans detailing where they will move their offices outside of the nation’s capital.
Heads of all departments and agencies on Wednesday were told to submit “any proposed relocations of agency bureaus and offices from Washington, D.C. and the National Capital Region to less-costly parts of the country” by April 14. To achieve this, Elon Musk and DOGE have made sweeping staff cuts, slashed contracts, and initiated plans to downsize the federal government’s real estate holdings in D.C.
There was no mention of the likely massive costs in making such moves, or the inefficiency and possible funding drain of selling property or paying off leases only to have to replace property with other purchases or leases. The Administrator of General Services must submit a plan to dispose of government-owned property “deemed by the agency as no longer needed” within 60 days, the order states.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump remarked on the number of Education Department buildings in the nation’s capital. “You go around Washington and see all these buildings with the Department of Education,” the president said. “We want to move education back to the states, where it belongs. Iowa should have education. Indiana should run their own education. You’re going to see education go way up.”.
Ending government leases in the city could have widespread implications for its economy, some argued. She continued: “For all of it to hit the market in a short time, it’s just a supply-and-demand issue that’ll drive down the value of that real estate considerably.”.
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