A federal agency responsible for recommending options to address the government’s real estate portfolio said Thursday that there is a massive maintenance backlog in federal buildings.
The Public Buildings Review Board (PBRB) released a report Thursday noting that the cost to clear up the backlog would be $50 billion, over two times the amount of previous estimates from the General Services Administration (GSA). The report also stated that GSA had been “chronically underfunded” compared to industry standards.
“GSA has historically received funds equal to about 0.375% of the portfolio’s Functional Replacement Value (FRV), far below the industry standard of 2–4% considered sustainable,” the report states.
The report also declared that the backlog was “crippling agencies’ ability to deliver on their missions, endangering the federal workforce, and dragging down local economies,” with buildings built between 1951 and 1995 presenting “the greatest challenge.”
The report also called for Congress to approve a massive selloff of properties, noting that receiving sufficient funding to address the backlog was “not reasonable.”
“The problem is compounded by a significant number of underutilized properties. The Board noted 2024 occupancy levels from a sample were as low as 12%,” the report stated. “To meet the 2% FRV industry benchmark with the current appropriation of $620 million annually, the portfolio’s inventory would need to shrink by 80%. It is not reasonable to expect Congress to appropriate $50 billion to renovate these assets. Large scale disposals are necessary to reduce the footprint and DM&R to manageable levels.”
“The primary challenge GSA and agencies face is the lack of funding necessary to vacate and dispose of these underutilized, high-cost assets, the report continued.
Other government agencies have acknowledged issues with underutilization. In January, the United States Postal Service (USPS) admitted it had 285 buildings across the country that are partially or completely unused, but said that legislative solutions were required to address the inventory.
A report from the Department of Agriculture stated that despite a return to the workplace mandate that doubled building usage, the agency is still only using a third of the space in its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
https://t.co/NEJr8X8dJG pic.twitter.com/w7e0L2h0ja
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) February 25, 2026
In a 60-page report released on Dec. 5, 2024, that covered findings from her investigations into telework issues, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa noted that largely vacant office buildings resulting from remote work policies established during the COVID-19 pandemic had detrimental effects on the environmental quality in the workplaces. When asked about Ernst’s report by the Daily Caller News Foundation, PBRB board member Dan Mathews confirmed that environmental safety was a problem.
“Water stagnated in the buildings, which created the opportunity for pathogens to grow,” Mathews told the DCNF during a Thursday press briefing. “They had Legionella outbreaks all across the portfolio. You had many pipes and other things that were in really bad condition and frankly not very clean or clear.”
Ernst and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced plans to sell the Ag South Building in Washington, D.C., in a Feb. 25 news conference. Ernst introduced S. 3901, the Disposing of Inactive Structures and Properties by Offering for Sale And Lease (DISPOSAL) Act, on Oct. 30, which required the government to sell off six major federal government-owned buildings in Washington, D.C., while also streamlining the process to sell other buildings.
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