The General Services Administration on Tuesday released the federal government’s first comprehensive snapshot of space utilization, revealing that 9,766 government spaces fell below the legal 60% utilization threshold between January 12 and March 6, according to data mandated by a 2024 law.

GSA Administrator Edward Forst and Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who chairs the subcommittee overseeing GSA, said in a joint op-ed that no agency hits the 60% occupancy benchmark. “In any well-run organization, whether it be public or private sector, that should be a cause for concern,” they wrote in Government Executive.

The federal government for the first time has released a trove of data showing how much of its footprint is being used — or not used — in close to real time. As mandated by a 2024 law, the 23 largest agencies measured the utilization rates of their leased and owned buildings during the eight-week reporting period.

GSA Administrator Edward Forst said in a release that “Today’s data shines a light on the usage of federal buildings and gives GSA a clear path to smarter space allocation.” The data represents what GSA described as “the first government-wide snapshot of space utilization,” listing thousands of properties that did not meet the 60% benchmark .

The utilization rates revealed widespread underuse across major federal agencies. The Department of Agriculture reported 19.1 million square feet of owned and leased space with a 26.2% utilization rate . The Department of Justice reported 42.6 million square feet of owned and leased space with a 23.8% utilization rate . The Department of Education reported 617,000 square feet of owned and leased space with a 20.7% utilization rate .

Agencies used several methods to collect the information, including analyzing badge scans to get into a building, sensors to track occupancy and aggregated and anonymized mobile location data . However, GSA reported that some of the data, which comes from the Cabinet departments as well as larger agencies such as NASA and the Social Security Administration, could be “incomplete, outdated or contain inaccuracies.”

The data release comes as the Trump administration is aggressively moving to shrink the federal footprint, selling buildings and eliminating billions of dollars of deferred maintenance expenses that have saddled the federal portfolio . Forst and Perry wrote in their commentary that they would prioritize offloading buildings that need significant repairs; GSA reports that the maintenance backlog for federal buildings is between $26 billion and $50 billion. The duo also said that GSA would try to co-locate agencies with similar missions .

In their joint commentary, Forst and Perry wrote: “This isn’t just a punchline, it’s a crisis. For too long, the government has been paying for ghost buildings it does not use and cannot afford to keep or continue to neglect. This issue has remained hidden in plain sight, buried under layers of bureaucracy.”

“We cannot afford to delay,” wrote Forst and Perry. “Now that we have this information, it is time we get to work. We can and we must do better. We will look to reduce excess property and realign our nation’s real estate portfolio around a stronger, more efficient core.”

Section 2302 of the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, also known as the USE IT Act, mandates public reporting of occupancy and utilization rates of public buildings and federally-leased space. The data presents key utilization statistics for each executive department covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 .

The act directs that for spaces that fall below a 60% utilization threshold, agencies and the GSA must work together to reduce the tenant agency’s space. They could take measures including consolidating it with another agency, selling or disposing of excess space, and adjusting square footage requirements for replacement space .

The revelations build on previous studies showing widespread underutilization. A Public Buildings Reform Board report in March 2024 found that federal agencies were using just 12% of the space in their headquarters buildings on average . A Government Accountability Office report in July 2023 found that a majority of the agencies it surveyed used 25% or less of their headquarters .

During a congressional hearing last month, Forst said the GSA is looking at three or four opportunities to colocate agencies. Last week, the GSA sold a large office building in D.C., the nearly 1 million square foot Regional Office Building that had formerly housed GSA National Capital Region employees but had been vacant since March 2025 .

Forst told the