The Trump administration has set an April 14 deadline for federal agency director to submit plans for moving offices to “less-costly parts of the country.”
The Washington Post reports the guidance was issued by the directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to the heads of all Executive Branch departments and agencies. The strategy was defined as a means of eliminating “waste, bloat and insularity” in government by relocating offices out of the Washington, DC area.
President Trump also signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring agencies to submit an inventory of their real property within seven days and then identify all leases that could be terminated within 30 days. The General Services Administration would then put forth plans to dispose all property deemed “no longer needed” within 60 days.
The impact of forcing the relocation of federal workers out of the Washington market is unclear. The federal government accounts for nearly one-quarter of the District’s workforce and roughly 373,000 employees – or 15% of the regional workplace – reside in the Washington metro market.
Although the office of Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser did not immediately comment on the report, a negative response came from Diana Parks, chairwoman of the National Federal Development Association, which represents landlords who lease to the federal government. Parks said these plans “would be devastating to most commercial landholders in the DC market. 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.”
