Empty Transportation Department buildings are costing American taxpayers $370 million a year: GAO

The Government Accountability Office in a recent report found that empty Transportation Department buildings are still costing American taxpayers approximately $370 million a year in rent, operations and maintenance costs.

The federal auditor reported on July 15 that 89% of the department's 189 facilities that it examined nationwide in August and September 2025 fell short of the 60% occupancy rate required by the federal USE IT Act to stay open.

The agency’s largest spaces had an occupancy rate of just 34% on average, the GAO found, and among those underutilized buildings are the Department of Transportation's headquarters and the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“With seven out of every ten desks sitting empty in thousands of government buildings, Washington needs to follow this simple rule: use it or lose it,” Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told the Washington Times this week. “Taxpayers can’t afford to waste more than $1 billion every year on Taj Mahals for bureaucrats.”

A DOT official told the outlet that the agency is working to “centralize operations and enhance the efficiencies” of its workforce and is working to relocate 950 FAA employees to the DOT headquarters next summer.

“USDOT is committed to unifying the Department under one roof and maximizing our space,” the official said. “We’re already making significant progress: one of our FAA buildings has already been returned to GSA, and over 800 FAA employees have already been relocated to DOT HQ.”

The GAO, however, highlighted that beyond relocating less than 1,000 employees from the FAA to the DOT's headquarters, the department did not have a plan to consolidate its workspace, and there are over 50,000 DOT employees.

“DOT has not pursued department-wide-consolidation to increase space utilization or implemented space-maximizing strategies to address underutilized office space,” the GAO report warned. “Specifically, as of March 2026, DOT did not have plans to consolidate other DOT offices beyond FAA headquarters despite widespread underutilization.”

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.