The Elon Musk-led DOGE operation has added more environmental agency offices to its list of leases to be canceled as part of the administration’s push to shrink the federal government.
A Department of Government Efficiency website that tracks canceled leases, contracts and grants across the government has been updated to include canceled leases for offices used by employees at the National Park Service, EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Those DOGE-reported lease cancellations are on top of dozens of previously listed cancellations for offices used by energy and environmental agencies. The website says it was last updated on March 11 and that the DOGE team plans to regularly update the page.
The recently added canceled leases include offices in red and blue states alike. Among them are park service locations in Alaska and Pennsylvania, FWS offices in Wyoming and New York, and EPA shops in Georgia and Kentucky.
The lease cancellations are part of the Trump administration’s sprint to cut federal spending, including through ditching leases for government office space. The cancellations are also adding uncertainty and confusion to federal workers wondering if they’ll see their jobs eliminated as the administration also pursues sweeping cuts to the workforce.
The DOGE website now lists lease cancellations at EPA offices in Norcross, Georgia; Erlanger, Kentucky; and Indianapolis. Those are in addition to seven EPA leases previously listed among the DOGE terminations.
EPA said in an email Friday that the agency “continues to work with GSA to ensure that the critical functions supported at the facilities are not disrupted.” The agency did not comment on why those particular leases were targeted for cancellation.
Interior cancellations
Interior Department leases in the updated DOGE list include offices in Moab, Utah, that support four national sites in the region: the Arches and Canyonlands national parks and the Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments.
The list also includes an NPS lease in Somerset, Pennsylvania, an office location. One of the nearest national park sites to that office is the Flight 93 National Memorial, dedicated to 9/11 victims. Also listed is a BLM lease in rural eastern Oregon and 10 leases for FWS in Wyoming, Florida and other states.
An Interior spokesperson said additional details about its work with the General Services Administration would be provided in the future but declined to provide specific details of which offices have been affected so far. The DOGE list includes the agency, city, square footage and annual lease cost of canceled leases but does not provide addresses.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are prioritizing strategic reforms to maximize resources, cut waste, and enhance operational effectiveness across our facilities,” Interior spokesperson J. Elizabeth Peace said in an email.
“We are actively working with GSA to ensure that every facility and asset is utilized effectively, and where necessary, identifying alternative solutions that strengthen our mission. These efforts reflect our broader commitment to streamlining government operations while ensuring that conservation efforts remain strong, effective, and impactful,” Peace said.
Reversal on Army Corps leases
At least some of the lease terminations listed on the DOGE website are no longer being pursued.
For example, the General Services Administration had planned to terminate leases on Army Corps regional offices in Jacksonville, Florida, and Chicago, as well as the agency’s Hydrological Engineering Center in Davis, California. But all three of those lease terminations are not currently being pursued as of Friday, according to multiple Army Corps staff.
The potential termination of the lease on the Hydrological Engineering Center spurred pushback from staff working there.
The center is responsible for developing and updating software used to manage dams and reservoirs across the nation, according to two people at the Army Corps familiar with the situation who were granted anonymity to speak freely. The center has been at its current location since 1969 and regularly hosts in-person trainings for personnel across the Army Corps so they can learn to use the software.
Terminating the lease would have “immediately [impacted] our ability to assist with full-time flood forecasting, develop this software and deliver the training,” said one of the Army Corps staffers. The potential closure of the center created “an extremely emotionally upsetting time for many, with countless hours wasted by managers to meet with real estate and GSA to scramble and find a new space,” they added.
It’s not clear why GSA has reversed course on some Army Corps lease terminations. The two staffers said that the building’s owners had pushed back on the legality of GSA pulling out of the leases.
Other buildings within the Army Corps appear to still be on the chopping block. While the lease on the Army Corps office in Chicago will not be terminated, GSA is still planning to terminate the lease on a smaller Griffith, Indiana, building used by the agency, said Jacob Zdrojewski, an Army Corps public affairs specialist.
“We are still hoping that will change,” Zdrojewski said in an email.
The Charleston District headquarters on the campus of the Citadel military college in South Carolina is still set to be cut as well. It could be canceled as soon as late August or September under the lease terms, and there is no immediate plan for where the approximately 180 staffers would work, said Dylan Burnell, public affairs specialist at the agency.
“The Charleston District is currently working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Atlantic Division on a path forward,” Burnell said in an email Friday.
Congressional help
At least one National Park Service location — in Fairbanks, Alaska — may also have a new lease on life thanks to Sen. Dan Sullivan (R).
There are two main NPS facilities in Fairbanks, one is a multiagency visitor’s center to help tourists navigate public lands in Alaska and another is administrative support. Both are critical hubs in the region for jobs and visitor services.
It was unclear which facility remains on DOGE’s updated list. Both locations were informed late last month by the General Services Administration that their leases would be terminated. Then GSA reversed course roughly 10 days later, after Sullivan pressured the White House and agency leaders, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Sullivan told the paper he had lobbied the Trump administration by saying he supported Trump’s Day 1 executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which aims to open access for mining and drilling in the state and roll back a host of regulations from the Biden era.
Sullivan said, “I sent a very long text, I had three different phone calls, and I had a phone call back: ‘We reversed it because of you,” according to the News-Miner.
Contact these reporters on Signal: Heather Richards at h_richards.99, Robin Bravender at r_bravender.93 and Miranda Willson mirandawillson.99
