The federal government’s mounting maintenance and repair backlog has reached a staggering $370 billion, more than doubling from $171 billion since fiscal year 2017 , the Government Accountability Office warned Congress last week, marking the most severe deterioration of federal infrastructure in decades.
GAO Director David Marroni testified before the House Appropriations Committee that many federal buildings are in poor condition and the problem is getting worse, prompting the agency to add federal building condition to its High Risk List in 2025 . The dramatic escalation led GAO to expand its longstanding federal real property concerns for the first time in more than two decades.
” Unless this trend reverses, federal assets will continue to deteriorate and need premature replacement, which can be significantly more expensive than if maintenance and repairs were done when originally scheduled ,” Marroni warned lawmakers during his April 9 testimony.
The crisis spans across 277,000 federal buildings that cost $10.3 billion annually to operate and maintain , creating what experts describe as a cascading infrastructure emergency that threatens government operations nationwide. The General Services Administration alone reported its deferred maintenance backlog exceeded $17 billion in March 2025, calling the issue a top priority.
Federal agencies attributed the explosive growth in repair costs to funding constraints, rising labor and materials costs, and the size and age of their real property portfolios , according to GAO’s November 2023 analysis. The Defense Department and civilian agencies together account for the entire $370 billion figure, representing one of the largest unfunded maintenance obligations in federal history.
The deteriorating conditions have created immediate safety hazards. GAO found in 2023 that military barracks were in poor condition, including some with safety risks like sewage overflow and inoperable fire systems, leading to recommendations that service branches update minimum health and safety standards .
Managing federal real property has remained on GAO’s High-Risk List for 22 years, with building condition now added as a high-risk topic within federal real property due to large increases in the cost of addressing deferred maintenance . The designation signals congressional oversight priority and indicates potential for significant taxpayer savings through improved management.
The maintenance crisis intersects with widespread underutilization of federal office space. Seventeen of the 24 federal agencies in the Federal Real Property Council used an estimated average 25 percent or less of their headquarters building’s capacity during sample weeks in early 2023, with agencies at the higher end using 40 to 49 percent .
GSA has initiated several responses to address the growing backlog. As of February 2025, GSA officials stated they are continuing to develop a model to project the condition of its portfolio 10 years into the future, which officials anticipate completing by March 2026 to identify funding and timeframes needed to address the agency’s deferred maintenance backlog .
The agency also launched a program called Space Match in March 2025 to help federal agencies find available office space in underused space, with potential benefits including helping agencies find available space as employees return to in-person work and optimizing the use of underused space .
However, structural challenges remain. The Public Buildings Service began a major reorganization in March 2025, reducing staff levels by about 50 percent, with officials telling GAO in September 2025 they planned to finalize the reorganization in October, though GAO has not confirmed how recent appropriations lapses affected the timeline .
Congressional action may prove crucial. The Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act, enacted in January 2025, requires agencies to measure building utilization and plan to dispose of underused space, which if effectively implemented would address GAO’s 2023 recommendation on the need for governmentwide guidance on measuring space utilization .
GAO maintains 57 open recommendations to various agencies related to managing federal real property , underscoring the breadth of reforms needed to address what Marroni described as a crisis threatening the foundation of federal operations.
The $370 billion figure represents nearly 18 times the annual operating costs for all federal buildings, illustrating the scale of deferred investment now required to restore the government’s physical infrastructure to acceptable standards.