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Exclusive: Former General Services Agency (GSA) head Emily Murphy, who served everyone in President Donald Trump’s first term, told Fox News Digital that the GSA “gives the rights to a portfolio” by saving money to operate the government more efficiently by selling or leasing unused government buildings.
“I think there is currently an incredible opportunity for the GSA to save governments by granting the rights to the portfolio,” Murphy told Fox News Digital to work with Elon Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the GSA to identify “vacancies or unutilized federal spaces” as part of the Trump administration’s plan to reduce waste spinning.
“Now, the GSA is losing money,” Murphy said. “The federal buildings they own have over $370 billion in postponed maintenance. That’s just a responsibility to grow and grow because the buildings are not maintained. So they take responsibility for that by removing the unmaintained space that has not been maintained and has not been taken away from government books. Good for everyone.”
Murphy said these empty buildings are often located in ideal downtown “heavy use areas” that are real assets to build communities and return funds to the Treasury Department.
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Former GSA administrator Emily Murphy told Fox News Digital that she is embracing Elon Musk’s Doge plan to offload “vacancies or unutilized federal spaces” as part of the Trump administration’s plan to cut wasteful spending. (Fox News Digital/Getty)
“The GSA must entitle a lease portfolio, otherwise it would pay rent on the building.
GSA’s cost-cutting efforts have already resulted in 794 lease terminations, cancelling lease obligations totaling over $500 million.
Doge and agency cancel 200,000 federal credit cards
Murphy said closing the lease and selling unused office space would bring two benefits to the government. First, you can make money to fund government agencies in the short term. Second, it reduces long-term financial obligations.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t want to pay for spaces that the government doesn’t use,” Murphy said. “By billions of dollars a year [that] I’m off to pay my federal rent and property. This is a substantial amount of money, and a real opportunity for the GSA to do a great job for Americans, reduce the long-term financial obligations of the government, and frankly, to free up money for agents in the short term. ”
Elon Musk will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland on February 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Murphy told Fox that the GSA existed to “reduce waste” and was able to return about $21.6 billion in savings during his tenure. She embraced Doge’s efforts to reduce wasted spending and increase government efficiency, and told Fox News Digital that these issues should have bipartisan support.
“First government efficiency and minimizing waste should be a bipartisan issue. There is no Republican side or democratic side to government contracts, government real estate,” Murphy said. “What Doge is doing now is just trying to move forward and make sure taxpayers can have confidence that every dollar they spend is in their biggest profit.
Murphy explained that the GSA was created to manage the federal government’s wealth and procurement portfolio, and welcomed a new focus on efficiency.
According to the official DOGE website, GSA is generating the most savings across federal agencies. (AP/Getty)
“The GSA is essentially a government administration department. It handles many of the real estate, procurement, and the shared services the government has, government vehicles. It operates many of the government’s back-office functions. It was created about 75 years ago to film that challenge in particular.
Stephen Ehikian was sworn in as deputy administrator and assistant administrator of the GSA on the day of his inauguration.
“Under the Trump Vance administration, I will bring the GSA back to its core purpose of making governments smarter and faster,” Ehikian said. “As we move forward, the GSA will focus on driving efficient governments and ensuring sister agencies can provide better services to taxpayers at a lower cost.”
According to the official DOGE website, GSA is generating the most savings across federal agencies. A web page on the GSA website entitled “Non-core Properties List (coming soon)” outlines the agency’s ongoing efforts to save government buildings.
General Service Building in Washington, DC (Getty)
“We identify buildings and facilities that are not core government operations or non-core real estate for disposal. Sales ensure that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent in vacant or unutilized federal space. Disposal of these assets can be reinvested in high-quality work environments that eliminate expensive maintenance and support agency missions.”
The Associated Press reported that dozens of federal agencies and building leases have been fired by June 20th, with hundreds more expected in the coming months. The AP reported last week that the GSA had published a list of more than 440 federal properties the government had planned to offload. This list was then revised to include only 320 buildings before the webpage was eventually updated to the current “coming soon” language.
Musk lamented about his unused office building on his personal X account and his official Doge account.
“There are too many leases for *roads*unused buildings,” Musk posted on February 25th.
“Agreed! Today, lease cancellations for vacant/underutilized buildings have risen from around 257 to 440, with annual rent savings rising from $100 million to $171 million.
“Today, the federal government has surpassed $100 million annual rent savings through cancellations of over 250 vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3m+square feet. There is plenty of office space available for the current workforce,” Doge announced in a February 25th post.
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“It’s crazy that the government was renting and paying for hundreds of empty building maintenance services!” replied Musk.
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