The Trump administration is squeezing the footprint of the Agriculture Department by selling one of its hulking downtown Washington office buildings, officials announced Wednesday.
USDA and the General Services Administration announced plans to scrap the Agriculture South Building on Independence Avenue, an imposing federal office building near the National Mall and about a mile from the White House.
The move comes as part of the Trump administration’s broader push to downsize the federal government’s real estate portfolio and to slash the size of the federal workforce and bureaucracy more broadly. Trump administration officials said the move will save taxpayer cash and help consolidate unused offices.
“This is a long overdue move to protect American taxpayer dollars from being wasted on expensive real estate inside the Washington, D.C. area when our government should be closer to the farmers and ranchers we serve,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
