REPORT: Taxpayers Shelling Out $7 Billion in Unused Office Space

A major criticism of this administration has been allowing most government workers to continue to work from home even though the COVID threat is no longer a threat.

Reports are now surfacing as to the extent of empty office space due to Biden’s work-from-home rule, and the numbers are staggering.

Stay Home

During COVID, many companies and government offices allowed employees to work from home due to health concerns.

Some businesses used this experience to realize how much they could save, removing offices altogether and renting conference rooms when they need to meet in person.

Our government, unfortunately, is not run like a business, and they are still writing checks for office space that is not being used.

Sadly, those offices are not going to be occupied anytime soon due to an extension put in place by Biden right before he left office.

The Return to Office Debate

With Donald Trump returning to office in just a few days, the debate for all government workers to return to the office has been refired.

Trump has already stated that he plans on rescinding orders given by Biden and will mandate that all government workers return to their offices to work.

To that point, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) stated, “We understand that there are always going to be certain employees who telework. But the overwhelming majority of workers have to work from the office, and there’s no reason why we can’t go back to pre-pandemic levels.”

Comer is looking forward to Trump addressing this issue, adding, “I think that you’re going to be hearing a lot about that — especially in this committee, which has jurisdiction on the federal workforce — over the next several months. Hopefully the American taxpayers will get a better return on their investment, and at the very least, the federal workforce will have to show up for work like they do.”

Wasting Our Money

According to a recent report by congressional Republicans, our government is paying about $7 billion a year in leases, while roughly half the workforce is working from home.

This is backed up by a report from the Government Accountability Office in 2023 that found more than 70% of government agencies have somewhere between 9% and 49% occupancy in the office space they are leasing.

Even for a conservative estimate, that means about $3 billion per year is being wasted, and that number is likely much higher. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) recently investigated and found that there are nearly 7,000 government office buildings completely vacant, with another 2,500 partially occupied.

More than half of all federal workers are either working at home 100% of the time, or working part-time from home. Comer stated, “The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into prolonged pandemic-era telework reveals the Biden-Harris Administration has ceded too much authority to the federal union bosses, allowing their preference to work from home to take precedence over fulfilling agencies’ missions and serving the American people.”