‘Ghost town’ Capital costs almost $16 billion per year

Many federal employees receive “locality pay” based on where they work, including for cities with a high cost of living, but as many as 68% are getting that pay in error because they work from home

Topline: The government spends $15.7 billion each year to lease and maintain its office space, but only 6% of federal employees actually show up for in-person work, according to new findings from OpenTheBooks and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Key facts: Many federal buildings are truly a “ghost town,” as Ernst put it. The Department of Energy’s headquarters is 1.8 million square feet large, about half of which is usable square footage. In 2023, an average of eight people were in the building at any given time.

The Department of Veteran Affairs and the Agency for Global Media are some of the other biggest offenders, with 72 and 172 people, respectively, on average occupying their paid office space.

Many federal employees receive “locality pay” based on where they work, including for cities with a high cost of living. But as many as 68% are getting that pay in error because they work from home, Ernst found. One employee got a bonus for working in an expensive city despite living 2,000 miles away from their office.

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