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EXCLUSIVE: The Senate’s DOGE leader is hoping to give the U.S. Treasury another boost in cutting the $36 trillion national debt, this time by selling off some major real estate in Washington, D.C., currently home to several prominent cabinet agencies.
The headquarters of the Departments of Energy, Housing & Urban Development, along with ancillary buildings home to other top agencies, would be sold off but without attrition or layoffs, as the employees therein would be relocated elsewhere, according to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.
The “For Sale Act” would put the James Forrestal Federal Building on the market, one of six properties identified by the Senate DOGE Caucus as ripe for removal from the federal government’s portfolio.
The imposing modernist structure, which hovers across L’Enfant Plaza as a cross between an office building and a pedestrian bridge, was once known as the “Little Pentagon” and home to overflow Department of Defense personnel during the Vietnam War.
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The James W. Forrestal Federal Building, or “Little Pentagon,” now houses the Department of Energy. (Getty)
The Department of Energy moved in after then-President Jimmy Carter created the agency in 1977.
Several other buildings along Independence Avenue in the Federal Center section of Washington – so named for its panoply of federal offices – would hit the market as well.
Directly west of the Forrestal, one of the Agriculture Department’s outbuildings on Independence is on DOGE’s list for mandatory sale.
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From left to right, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Sen. Joni Ernst, Sen. Steve Daines and Sen. John Thune. (Reuters)
That building is at about one-quarter capacity and is in need of nearly $2 billion in upgrades or maintenance, Republicans said.
Ernst quipped the…
