Trump Signs Order to Move Federal Offices Outside of Washington

The White House said the order will help empower agencies to move closer to the people they serve.

An aerial view shows the US Capitol in Washington on August 11, 2023. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 15 that allows federal agencies and departments to move to cheaper office space and facilities in areas outside of Washington as part of ongoing efforts to slash wasteful government spending.

“The American people are spread across more than 3.8 million square miles in urban, suburban, and rural areas,” the executive order states. “To provide the highest quality services in an efficient and cost-effective manner, executive departments and agencies ... must be where the people are.”

Trump’s order rescinds two long-standing executive actions issued by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton that required the federal government to locate their office space in central business districts.

Carter’s order, signed in August 1978, was meant to improve these business districts, but instead prevented agencies from relocating to lower-cost facilities, Trump’s order said.

Clinton’s order, signed in May 1996, was aimed at encouraging agencies to locate their facilities in historic properties and districts, especially when located in central business areas. However, it failed to adequately ensure government services ran efficiently and effectively, according to Trump’s order.

“Revoking these orders will restore common sense to federal office space management by freeing agencies to select cost-effective facilities and focus on successfully carrying out their missions for American taxpayers,” Trump’s executive order said.

Trump’s order directs the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal property, to begin the process of updating regulations in the federal register and take any other steps necessary to conform federal office space management policy to his order.

Any agencies that acquire or utilize federally owned or leased space must comply with the order, it notes.

According to a White House fact sheet, the GSA currently manages approximately 363 million rentable square feet in 8,397 buildings in more than 2,200 communities across the United States.

Deferred maintenance liabilities on such buildings now exceed $17 billion, and in many cases, liabilities exceed the actual value of the properties owned by the federal agency, the fact sheet said.

Trump’s order allows federal agencies to “select office space and facilities based on cost-effectiveness, mission suitability, and the needs of the American people,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

Reviews by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have led to the cancellation of federal leases across the country in recent months as it seeks to slash wasteful government spending and save $155 billion from the federal budget in fiscal year 2026.

According to the official website of DOGE—which was established by Trump in January via an executive order—a $1,863,031 leasing contract at the Bureau of Reclamation at Boise, Idaho, has already been terminated

That contract with the agency that oversees water resource management covered a 79,869 sq. ft. building. Ending it resulted in approximately $18,630,308 in savings, according to DOGE.

Additionally, a contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Hadley, Massachusetts, that covered 72,220 sq. ft. and cost $1,590,490 to lease annually has been canceled. Terminating that lease is expected to save the government $11,595,327, according to DOGE.

A lease with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles, California, that covered a 57,903 sq. ft. building and amounted to $2,464,948 annually has also been canceled, according to DOGE.

Ending that lease is expected to save the government $9,812,520, DOGE said.