Ernst Puts $400 Million in Federal Fixer Uppers on Auction Block
FOR SALE Act downsizes Washington’s vacant and underutilized real estate portfolio.
WASHINGTON – After exposing that thousands of federal buildings are vacant or underutilized, U.S. Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has a commonsense proposal to downsize Washington’s bloated real estate portfolio and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Ernst is introducing her Federal Office Realignment and Sale of Assets for Leveraging Efficiency (FOR SALE) Act to put six pieces of prime properties in the nation’s capital on the auction block to generate $400 million or more in revenue, while also canceling costs, including $2.9 billion for overdue maintenance.
“Despite being the nation’s largest landlord, the federal government will never win a round of Monopoly,” said Ernst. “That’s because Uncle Sam, who is already $37 trillion in debt, refuses to sell off unused and unneeded properties that are nothing but money pits. I am putting these federal fixer uppers FOR SALE and ending the backwards game of Washington-opoly where taxpayers always lose!”
Click here to download audio and video of Senator Ernst talking about her FOR SALE Act.
The six buildings being put on the auction block are the Department of Agriculture South Building, Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building, Frances Perkins Federal Building, James V. Forrestal Building, Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building, and Robert C. Weaver Federal Building.
Click here to view the bill text.
Background:
Ernst first exposed how federal office buildings were virtual ghost towns in December 2023 with her naughty list that showed the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration used just 7% of their office space.
Every year, Washington pays out over $81 million maintaining underutilized offices. This includes nearly 7,700 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are largely empty.
A General Services Administration report in May 2025 said that deferred maintenance exceeds $6 billion and will grow to $20 billion in five years.
Ernst and the DOGE Caucus racked up a win earlier this year with the announcement of the sale of the Wilbur J. Cohen building, a 1.2 million square foot monument to waste, where just 72 of 3,341 workers were showing up to work.
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