In March 2025, General Services Administration (GSA) workers were fired, dropping their numbers by almost half from 5,655 in January to 2,853 by August. Then in September, 392 of the firings were rescinded, effective immediately. Now the agency that discarded them is willing to welcome them back. That is the strange history that civil servants in the GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS) have endured in the past year.
According to a report by WIRED, PBS chief of staff Donna Dix told employees in an email that the agency was "thrilled to announce" that the PBS staffing plan to address its workforce needs and strengthen its teams had been approved.
Dix said hiring will focus on "the most significant areas of need," which include facilities management, acquisition and project management. And the needs are great.
According to the GAO, PBS's portfolio includes some 8,500 owned and leased properties covering 359 million square feet and housing 80 tenant agencies. It collects more than $10 billion in rent annually and provides tenants with a range of services, including maintaining owned buildings, negotiating leases, disposing of unneeded properties and helping agencies plan their real property portfolios.
Despite the burden of managing so many properties, an official email obtained by Federal News Network in February 2025 stated that about 63% of PBS's workforce -- 3,557 positions -- would be eliminated through a non-voluntary Reduction in Force (RIF). It said that a "meaningful consolidation of space" would require less support. The consolidation was intended to cut PBS's real estate portfolio by half. Many of the cuts were driven by DOGE, WIRED stated.
Some of the space will be used by GSA and PBS, assisting ICE's plans to lease offices "throughout the U.S. as part of a massive expansion campaign," WIRED reported.
While the report does not mention a major reorganization of PBS from an 11-region structure into eight centralized functional business lines, it is possible that the reorganization also increased the need to recall experienced staff.
There is widespread agreement that PBS's operations were more than due for a change. Testifying before a Congressional subcommittee on December 11, 2025, the GAO noted that the GSA and PBS have "long-standing challenges." These include underused buildings where wasted space costs millions of dollars, a lack of reliable data and buildings in poor condition made worse by the cost of fixing deferred maintenance.
"The backlog of maintenance and repair needs has more than doubled in estimated cost from fiscal years 2017 through 2024, going from $170 billion to $370 billion." Furthermore, GAO said spaces were not well configured to meet modern office needs.
In a statement to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on March 4 this year, the new GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst pulled few punches. Forst's background includes executive positions at Cushman and Wakefield, the Treasury Department and Goldman Sachs & Co.
"GSA is trusted to be a responsible landlord, and frankly right now we are not meeting that standard," Forst stated. "Substandard building maintenance is unacceptable and it is imperative that we hold ourselves accountable to that very same standard in federally owned space."
One of the buildings that fails that test is the GSA's own headquarters at 1800 F Street in Washington, DC. About 40% is considered "uninhabitable" – so bad that the agency had to lease additional space to keep employees safe. Calling this "an embarrassment," Forst described the building as a living piece of federal architectural history.
Forst cited regulations that inhibit GSA's ability to address delinquent maintenance, rightsize the federal real estate portfolio and streamline repairs. One rule prevents the agency from spending more than $3.9 million on any renovation, repair, lease or construction without multiple approvals to obtain funding.
"Major repairs and alterations average 436 days for approval, new construction takes 325 days, and leases require 244 days, with some pending for over 600 days," he said.
In addition, he noted, "authorizations too often fail to translate into actual funding. Projects awaiting final Congressional action may sit for years, during which building conditions deteriorate further and costs escalate dramatically. Meanwhile, GSA must repeatedly resubmit and update prospectuses reflecting new cost estimates."
Forst said his administration will prioritize speed and agility, including accelerating all property disposals, prioritizing maintenance in critical assets and rethinking how government real estate is managed.
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