Ernst continues push to get rid of federal buildings that are not 60% occupied

WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture recently announced plans for the reorganization of the department, relocating resources to five regional hubs in the next few years. Iowa was named among the early favorites for one of those hub locations, but the USDA decided on Kansas City.

During a meeting of the Senate Agriculture Committee last week with Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden to discuss the plan, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst praised the Trump administration for requiring federal employees to be in the office and planning to unload office buildings that are not at least 60% occupied.

Ernst says former Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack lied to the committee last year when denying the USDA’s office building was mainly empty of employees.  “He denied evidence exposed by the GAO revealing the USDA headquarters building had an 11% utilization rate in 2023. He also said that whistleblower letter that I received ‘isn’t even close to correct’ to the USDA building usage at that time. Well folks, Secretary Vilsack lied.”

Ernst says other federal agencies need to follow the lead of the USDA and reorganize and get rid of their unused or underutilized buildings. “Unfortunately for taxpayers, USDA is not the only agency holding on to unaffordable properties that are nearly vacant. This includes nearly 7700 vacant federal buildings and another 2200 that are largely empty. To fix this, the Senate must pass my “For Sale Act” to dispose of underutilized buildings, including the Ag South Building, and to return the money from those sales to the taxpayers.”

The number of jobs that will come to Kansas City as part of the reorganization is unknown at this time.