US Federal Trade Commission to relocate to USAID headquarters - Bloomberg
Photo: The decision will save $11 million (Getty Images)
In the coming months, employees of the US Federal Trade Commission will be required to leave their offices. They have been instructed to relocate to the building currently being vacated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Bloomberg reports.
According to sources, a "surprise order" came from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - a team led by billionaire Elon Musk, whom US President Donald Trump tasked with reducing the size of the federal workforce.
As Bloomberg notes, most of the 1,300 employees of the antitrust and consumer protection agency (FTC) work in a building in Washington that also leases space to several other federal agencies. The FTC's 10-year lease for the space expired last year, but it was extended for another three years until 2027.
The FTC headquarters, which houses the agency’s five commissioners and senior executives, is located in another government building just a few blocks from the USAID building.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which leases office space on behalf of federal agencies, requested congressional approval for a new 20-year lease agreement for the FTC. However, while the Senate approved the new lease request in November, the House of Representatives has yet to take it up for consideration.
As of Thursday, the GSA’s list of leased office spaces indicated that the FTC’s lease would expire on Friday. Meanwhile, an FTC spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the situation.
Bloomberg also notes that Trump and Elon Musk have argued that USAID should be shut down. In particular, the administration has placed most of the agency’s 10,000 employees on administrative leave and canceled dozens of contracts, impacting projects from Africa to Ukraine and leading to hundreds of job losses across the United States.
This week, USAID employees were ordered to remove their personal belongings from the organization’s headquarters.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website claims that terminating the FTC’s lease in Washington has saved over $11 million. However, it does not specify how these claimed savings were calculated. According to GSA data, the agency pays $13.6 million per year for the space under its current lease terms.
When the FTC last changed offices in 2013, it spent approximately $75 million on relocation and setting up the new facility.
Earlier this week, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced that it was cutting more than 90% of foreign aid provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This information came from a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
