In the facilities management world, the General Services Administration (GSA) is one of the most impactful government agencies. It is an innovative organization that often leads the way nationally in setting the standards for how buildings across the institutional and commercial realm can operate more efficiently, in the present and the future.
“We’re in 50 states and three territories, so every climate is covered, and our buildings are large and quite diverse,” Kevin Powell, the GSA’s director of emerging building technologies, said in a 2024 Building Operating Management profile article. “We have no problems publicly publishing our outcomes (regarding research), whereas we know some of our colleagues in the commercial real estate industry view these technologies as proprietary advantage.”
The federal government’s plans for deep job and budget cuts for GSA could threaten its impact on United States building trends in the institutional and commercial realm. An NPR report outlined potential looming staff and budget cuts to the agency which include halving programs, contracts and salaries and consolidating hubs across the country.
GSA currently has about 12,000 employees and oversees about 360 million square feet of real estate, nearly $105 billion in annual contracts and more than 235,000 leased vehicles, according to the agency’s 2024 annual report.
The agency, as described in the NPR report, acquires the government’s real estate and runs almost all of its contracts.
Staffers expected to be retained will be those whose jobs are required by law, “critical” to the mission and generate revenue. Remaining staffers will also have their work more closely monitored, such as when they log in and out of devices, swipe in and out of workspaces and work chats.
GSA employees are also under a mandate to end remote work by March 3 and return to the office. With all the changes coming so fast, employees in the agency are on edge.
“This is a paradigm shift,” said an unnamed official who was quoted in the article. “The world of government as you knew it, it’s gone.”
Dave Lubach is the executive editor of the facilities market.
