Why it Matters
The federal government is sitting on hundreds of properties it no longer needs and the agency charged with selling them is moving faster than ever, with fewer people, and without any measurable targets for success. That combination, according to a new government watchdog report, is a recipe for accountability gaps that could cost taxpayers.
The Government Accountability Office released findings on April 9, concluding that the General Services Administration has launched an accelerated federal property disposal effort without setting the performance goals needed to determine whether it is actually working. At the same time, GSA is carrying out this expanded mission with roughly one-third fewer staff than it previously had, according to reporting by Facilities Dive.
The federal government's real estate footprint is vast, and unoccupied or underutilized properties cost taxpayers money every year in operations and maintenance. Getting rid of them faster sounds like good fiscal policy. But without defined goals, there is no way to know if the new approach is delivering on its promise or simply moving fast without moving smart.
The Track Record on Federal Property Disposal
GSA has been in the business of shedding excess federal real property for years. Since 2013, the agency has sold more than 900 unneeded properties, generating $1.4 billion in federal property revenue. This reflects genuine progress in government property disposition over more than a decade.
But the process has never been easy. Preparing a federal property for sale (which includes clearing legal encumbrances, conducting environmental reviews, coordinating with other agencies and local governments) has historically been both challenging and time-intensive. The bureaucratic machinery involved in federal real property management has long been a source of frustration for lawmakers and budget hawks alike.
That frustration has only grown as the inventory of underutilized federal buildings has remained stubbornly large, and as the costs of maintaining properties that serve no active government function continue to accumulate.
The 2025 Acceleration Push
In 2025, GSA kicked off what it describes as a new accelerated property disposal approach, designed to move properties through the sales pipeline faster than the traditional process allows. The launch coincided with the broader push by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency initiative to shrink the federal government's physical footprint as part of wider cost-cutting efforts.
GSA has reported savings on operations and maintenance costs from sales completed under this new approach, a tangible benefit that supports the case for moving quickly. The problem, GAO found, is that "quickly" has not been defined, benchmarked, or tracked against any specific targets.
The agency has not established performance goals for the accelerated approach. It has not used the sales data it collects to build estimates for how long future sales should take, broken down by property type. Without those tools, there is no reliable way to measure whether the accelerated approach is actually accelerating anything or whether the savings being reported are the result of the new strategy or simply a continuation of prior trends.
Fewer Staff, Bigger Mission
The staffing dimension adds another layer of concern to the oversight of federal real estate property management. According to Facilities Dive's reporting on the GAO findings, GSA is attempting to execute this expanded disposal effort with approximately one-third fewer staff than it had before. That reduction raises direct questions about capacity: whether the agency has enough personnel to conduct the due diligence, coordination, and transaction management that GSA property sales require.
GAO did not characterize the staffing reduction as disqualifying. But the combination of an ambitious new accelerated property disposal approach, no performance benchmarks, and a leaner workforce presents a risk profile that the watchdog clearly found worth flagging.
What GAO Is Asking GSA to Do
The GAO report issued two specific recommendations directed at GSA:
First, the agency should develop concrete performance goals for its accelerated sales approach. Without defined targets, it is impossible to evaluate success, identify bottlenecks, or hold the program accountable to Congress or the public.
Second, GSA should put its own sales data to work by using the information it already collects to build estimates for how long different types of property sales should take. That kind of data-driven forecasting would allow the agency to set realistic timelines, manage expectations, and spot problems before they become delays.
Both recommendations are, in essence, calls for basic management discipline: set goals, measure progress, use data. The fact that GAO found it necessary to make these recommendations suggests those fundamentals were not in place when the accelerated approach launched.
The Bottom Line
The report was prepared in response to congressional requesters, which is a standard practice for GAO investigations. The specific members who commissioned the report are identified in the full report document. Their interest reflects a broader pattern of congressional scrutiny over whether the administration's aggressive push to reduce the federal real estate footprint is being managed responsibly.
The pressure to sell federal properties faster is real and bipartisan. Taxpayers have long subsidized the maintenance of buildings the government no longer uses but speed without accountability is its own form of fiscal risk. The possibility that properties are sold under terms that don't maximize federal property revenue, or that the disposal process moves so fast that proper oversight falls away.
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