On Tuesday, the Trump administration identified more than 440 federal property that could be sold, a list containing well-known buildings such as the FBI, Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services headquarters.
By Wednesday morning, the entire inventory had been removed and the list of properties had been replaced by the agency's webpage that was “soon to come.”
The General Services Bureau, the agency that manages federal real estate portfolios, has already revised the list at least once. In the hours since its release, around 100 properties have been removed, including many of the Washington, D.C. area.
The change sparked confusion over the Trump administration's plan to offload vast amounts of federal property. Officials with the General Services Administration said that “disposal” of the building would save hundreds of millions of dollars and prevent taxpayers from having to pay for “underutilized federal space.” But the list has been criticized by Democrats and former federal officials who were concerned about the potential impact on government services around the country.
The agency did not immediately respond to inquiries about why the list was deleted.
The original version of the list included several cabinet-level departments and other large space offices used by the Agriculture and the Nuclear Regulation Authority. These were one of the buildings that were removed when the list was scraped to 320 properties. It is still included in the possibility of selling in that version. Buildings used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as field offices of Social Security Administrations, such as Western Pennsylvania, Saginaw and Michigan.
The approximately one million square feet of federal building has been marked for potential sales in Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Louis, Cleveland, Memphis and Kansas City in New York City.
The property is not officially listed on the market, but a spokesperson for the General Services Department said Tuesday that the agency will consider and evaluate all serious offers.
Some lawmakers quickly condemned the move. In a letter to Trump administration officials, Sen. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrats, said they are wary of potential sales of buildings such as Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Bill, which houses the office of the Veteran Affairs Affairing Department at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, near Minneapolis.
“The closure of the Whipple building in particular would put the services of veterans at risk for thousands of Minnesota veterans,” the senator wrote. “Veterans' disability and access to pension benefits, employment and housing counseling, and commemorative benefits will all be affected.”
Officials with the General Services Administration said Tuesday that the effort was intended to target buildings that are “functionally outdated and unsuitable for use by the federal workforce.”
“We can no longer expect funds to come out to resolve these long-standing issues,” the agency said in a statement.
Elon Musk, the high-tech billionaire and his government's overhaul operation known as government efficiency has a strong interest in the General Services Bureau. Over the past few weeks, Musk's team boasted about the end of hundreds of property leases and has pledged to eliminate “underutilized” federal buildings.
Several of Musk's allies have been deployed to institutions to assess federal real estate portfolios and work on government technical services.
