The Education Department Is Poised To Lose Its Longtime Hq

The Education Department is abandoning its Lyndon B. Johnson building headquarters this August to make room for a new tenant: the Energy Department.

Thursday's announcement is the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has made to dismantle the Education Department, where roughly half the staff has been shed since President Donald Trump reentered office last year — departures that have made this downsizing possible.

“Thanks to the hard work of so many, we have made unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint, and now we are pleased to give this building to an agency that will benefit far more from its space than the Department of Education,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

It's unclear how the Energy Department, which has a sprawling portfolio that includes nuclear security and other sensitive matters, will adapt the physical spaces in the current Education Department headquarters. But the Education Department said the relocation will save taxpayers more than $4 million annually in rental costs, adding that the smaller staff meant that nearly 70 percent of the headquarters space “is not being utilized.”

Education Department staff will move to 500 D St. NW, a process that will happen in phases, according to the agency.

With the Energy Department moving out of its Forrestal headquarters a few blocks away — which the Heritage Foundation deemed as worthy of being in the “list of disposable federal buildings” due to its appearance and age — taxpayers will also save about $350 million in maintenance costs, the agency said.

The head of the General Services Administration, which manages the federal government's properties, was particularly excited.

“GSA is partnering with the Department of Education and the Department of Energy to match their missions of tomorrow with ideal environments that power their talented workforce, cuts waste, and lowers costs,” GSA Administrator Ed Forst said in a statement.

The move is almost certain to be a major point of discussion when McMahon defends the president's budget on Capitol Hill in the coming week, but Republican lawmakers cheered the decision.

"Once again, the Trump administration is taking a strong step to reduce bureaucratic bloat and act as a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars," House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) said in a statement. "Since the beginning of this administration, President Trump and Secretary McMahon have been committed to right-sizing the Department so our education system serves students, not bureaucrats."

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on Walberg's committee, suggested the agency didn't discuss the matter with lawmakers.

"It is not even clear whether the Secretary bothered to adequately notify the remaining ED staff before making this decision public, let alone consult with Congress," he said in a statement.

Other Democrats are criticizing the Trump administration for what could be a costly move.

"Instead of actually helping students, Trump and his billionaire Secretary of Education are lighting millions of taxpayer dollars on fire with these stunts," Democratic appropriator and former Senate Education Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on X.

McMahon's move is one of several taking place across the federal government.

Last month, Department of Housing and Urban Development staff began moving out of their Washington headquarters near the National Mall to Alexandria, Virginia, into a newer building where the National Science Foundation briefly resided — prompting a trio of Senate Democrats to call for a Government Accountability Office investigation. Like the Education Department, HUD's transition came after the Trump administration slashed staffing at NSF, shrinking the agency's ranks by about one-third after once having roughly 1,800 workers before Trump returned to the White House.