Federal Office Assessments Lack Consistent Data Standards
Inconsistent tracking methods undermine the $16 million effort to optimize federal real estate and reduce leasing costs.
Updated on Oct. 20, 2026 in Remote Work
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Federal agencies spent $16 million since January 2025 to assess office utilization, yet the Government Accountability Office found inconsistent reporting methods that masked the true scale of underused space. The findings underscore the difficulty large organizations face in tracking physical attendance to optimize real estate portfolios.
Why it matters
Poor visibility into actual workspace occupancy forces agencies to maintain expensive footprints despite shifts toward remote and hybrid work. This gap in data highlights how firms risk overspending on leases when monitoring technologies like badging and surveys are not coupled with accurate, comprehensive reporting.
The federal government spends $7 billion annually on office spaces, divided between $5 billion for leases and $2 billion for operations. Despite the $16 million assessment cost, the Department of Homeland Security alone failed to provide occupancy data for 700 agency spaces.
The players
Government Accountability Office
A federal agency that provides auditing, investigative, and evaluation services to the United States Congress.
General Services Administration
An independent agency that manages federal real estate and supplies for the government.
Department of Homeland Security
A cabinet-level department responsible for public security and managing federal assets.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
A federal executive department responsible for developing and executing laws related to farming and food.
Department of Energy
A cabinet-level department that manages the nation's nuclear weapons, energy policy, and power grid.
The details
Agencies employed varied methods to track usage, including timecard entries, daily check-in surveys, badging, and visual inspections. The General Services Administration interpreted the 2025 Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act to exempt certain vacant units in multi-tenant buildings from disclosure. Consequently, real estate strategies vary widely: the Department of Energy aims to cut seven leases for $1.6 million in savings, while the GSA plans to shed 40,000 square feet in Kansas City.
Timeline
2016: Unsuccessful efforts to establish a public buildings reform board.
January 2025: Start of the $16 million office utilization assessment period.
Last three years: Congress failed to provide appropriations for the reform board.
Next 20 years: Expected timeframe for $350 million in DHS savings.
Market Landscape
This audit evaluates agency compliance with the 2025 Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act. It reflects a growing tension between legislative mandates for cost reduction and the operational failures in tracking actual occupancy data.
Operators should review their own badge-in data and occupancy surveys to ensure they reflect actual utilization rather than mere presence. Reconciling these figures is critical before making multi-year lease renewal decisions or downsizing real estate footprints.
The takeaway
The federal experience demonstrates that investment in monitoring technology fails to deliver ROI if data collection remains fragmented. Businesses should mandate standardized reporting across departments to ensure real estate consolidation efforts are based on actual usage, not administrative assumptions.
Further reading
For broader trends in hybrid office management, explore our Remote Work section.
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Should the federal government be more aggressive in selling off its underused office properties?
