Federal agencies have until mid-April 2025 to provide recommended relocations for agencies and departments outside of the Washington, D.C., capital region to “less costly parts of the country” as part of a Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) push to reduce costs and the size of the federal workforce. President Trump campaigned on a promise to move up to 100,000 federal employees outside of the DC area to “places filled with patriots.”

The order directs agency heads to identify current leases and decide whether to terminate them within 30 days. It gives the General Services Administration 60 days to submit a plan to get out of government-owned property considered unnecessary.

More than 80 percent of the federal workforce already live and work outside of the DC area.

President Trump approached this issue in his first term, including moving the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado. More than 87 percent of impacted BLM employees retired or resigned rather than make the move to Colorado at that time.

The more recent effort drew swift opposition from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who introduced legislation, the Protecting Federal Agencies and Employees from Political Interference Act (H.R. 1807), requiring congressional approval before any federal department or agency headquarters could be relocated outside of the region.

As a delegate, Norton may introduce legislation in Congress but cannot vote.

“Moving federal agencies is not about saving taxpayer money and will degrade the vital services provided to all Americans across the country,” Norton said in a statement. “We can have a discussion on ways to make government work better, but politicians throwing cheap shots at the nation’s capital and surrounding region, where thousands of expert public servants – and their families – live and work, should not be part of that discussion.”

A large cancelation of government leases would likely hamper the local DC economy and severely disrupt commercial landholders, according to Diana Parks, chair of the National Federal Development Association. “For all of it to hit the market in a short time, it’s just a supply-and-demand issue that’ll drive down the value of that real estate considerably,” Parks said.