According to Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) annual Festivus Waste Report, the government wastes $10 billion maintaining, leasing, and furnishing vacant buildings.
This year, Paul highlighted over $1 trillion in government waste, including “an ice-skating drag queen, a $12 million pickleball facility in Las Vegas, $4,840,082 on a Ukrainian influencer, and more.” “It's included!”
“No matter how much money the government wastes, politicians keep demanding more money,” he wrote.
This year's report coincides with the increasing popularity of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the overall desire to reduce waste in government. One of the key areas of waste identified in the report is quite simple. The government should stop spending $10 billion on vacant buildings.
“The federal government has spent $10 billion maintaining, leasing, and equipping almost entirely vacant buildings,” it says, and “most federal agencies have become ghost towns, with 17 out of 24 “Agency uses less than 25% of federal agency space.” 2023. ”
“Even the busiest offices are barely reaching 50% capacity,” the report went on to say, noting that the coronavirus has made the problem even worse as countless employees have gone remote. . But Paul argues that this was also a problem even before that.
GAO calculated building capacity based on usable square feet per employee. Many of these buildings turned out to be oversized and expensive storage units for empty desks. In addition to the massive $2 billion in annual maintenance costs, the federal government spends $5 billion in lease payments.
Paul also highlighted the government's wasteful use of everyday items, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's $237,960 installation of solar-powered picnic tables.
“I was alone @DOGE in front @DOGE “There was a glint in the eyes of empowered technology executives, and some of the biggest names in emerging media supported the idea,” Paul said.
“Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy they're here. I passed 2,000 pages of waste on to the next person. @Elon Musk and @VivekGRAmaswamy This is to reduce wasteful spending by the government. Now they don't have to work too hard to find what I've already found,” he added.
Read the full report here.
