President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has again revised savings estimates tied to federal site closures, nearly halving the unit’s initial forecast. The agency has also removed 91 federal sites previously listed on its “wall of receipts” for planned lease cancellations, including three FDA sites.
Currently, 27 FDA facilities across 20 states are slated for closure, compared to 30 FDA sites across 22 states listed on March 2. The three facilities removed from the list were in St. Louis; Columbus, Ohio; and Ontario, California.
Planned FDA lease terminations are still listed across Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nebraska, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
Previously, the government unit said it was terminating leases for at least 748 federal sites for a total of $660 million in estimated savings, as of March 2. Three days later, the DOGE revised the savings estimate down to $468 million for the same number of site closures.
Now, the agency has trimmed the number down by $118 million for a total of about $350 million in expected lease savings across 657 terminations. The DOGE website was last updated March 19.
"GSA is reviewing all options to optimize the federal footprint and building utilization. We are actively managing lease contracts by leveraging existing contract cancellation rights," a General Services Administration (GSA) spokesperson told Fierce Biotech. "As leases enter their soft term, we are sending letters of intent to customer agencies to inform them GSA is considering lease termination (thereby exercising GSA’s contractual rights as agreed upon with our lessors)."
"Actively managing leases gives GSA the opportunity to work closely with our partner agencies on their evolving and longer term needs and will often allow us to enhance space utilization and secure better terms for the government—including better pricing," the GSA spokesperson continued. "In instances where the current space remains the most suitable option—whether temporarily or longer term—we are adjusting our approach. For these agencies, we are either rescinding termination notices or, in some cases, not issuing them at all."
The DOGE—which is overseen by Tesla CEO Elon Musk—does not include individualized receipts for each lease but is working to upload all “receipts in a digestible and transparent manner consistent with applicable rules and regulations,” according to the site.
The department did not address the change on its site nor specify how the estimated savings will be used.
The DOGE also previously said it had terminated a lease related to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Seattle. That lease has since been removed from the “wall of receipts.”
Meanwhile, the contract termination for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) facility in Atlanta—where the CDC’s headquarters reside—remains. The lease for a 119,812-square-foot space is up May 31. The annual lease costs $2.5 million, according to the DOGE.
Over at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, two more site closures have been added, for a total of 17 lease terminations.
"These contractual cancellation rights are in accordance with regular and well-accepted private industry contracting processes," the GSA spokesperson said. "GSA’s letters of intent to terminate have no immediate effect and do not mean the lease has been terminated."
The current list of contract, grant and lease cancellations reflects about 30% of total savings, according to the DOGE site.
The expected closures follow Trump’s Feb. 26 executive order announcing plans to divest a significant percentage of the government's real estate footprint.
The HHS, the DOGE and the CDC did not respond to Fierce Biotech's requests for comment as of the time of publication.
Editor's note: This article was updated on March 24 at 5 p.m. ET to include comment from the GSA.