In this commentary, the speaker argues that the federal government is vastly overpaying for under‑used office space. He cites statistics that only 6% of federal employees work in an office full‑time, about one‑third are fully remote, and overall building occupancy is just 12%. Despite this, the government spends roughly $16 billion annually to operate these largely empty facilities. He points out that the head of the General Services Administration, which manages federal real‑estate, works from home, and that the EPA’s water system became stagnant, fostering dangerous bacteria, as an illustration of neglect. Quoting Senator Joni Ernst’s criticism of Washington’s pandemic‑era mindset, he frames the issue as a wasteful burden on taxpayers, likening it to paying rent or a mortgage for a space you rarely use.
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only 6% of federal employees work from an office full-time, and a third are fully remote. All right, so let's go ahead and flip the numbers. 94% of the people that you pay to go to work in Washington, DC work from home, and oftentimes they're not even working. Here's a quote from Senator Joni Ernst. She says Washington is still operating as if it's March of 2020, quote unquote. Just 3% of the federal workforce teleworked daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. So you had 97% occupancy before COVID hit. Today, 6% of workers report in person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are entirely remote. But government office buildings have an occupancy rate of only 12%, yet the government spends $16 billion of your dollars a year to operate those buildings that no one is even in. The General Service Administration, which manages federal real estate, the manager of that, the guy that runs the General Services Administration, right, that runs the federal real estate, works from home in Missouri. I mean, this is insane. This is insane. Office buildings are so empty. I'm sure some of you heard of this. or heard about this, that office buildings are so empty that the water supply at the office of the EPA, which is the Environmental Protection Agency, which is tasked with ensuring clean drinking water, was left stagnant for so long that it developed dangerous bacteria. This is sickening. Now let me ask you a question. Let's flip this, because I think one of the issues when it comes to government and government spending. And I think sometimes why people are either so oblivious to it or simply don't care is because we're not forced to think about it or to think about it in a critical manner. But let me ask you this. You pay a mortgage, you pay rent. All right. So if you're paying rent, I mean, if you're paying rent somewhere, are you, or are you going to pay rent somewhere or a mortgage somewhere if you're only expecting to be there 6% of the time? I, I mean, it's absolutely insane what we're paying for.
