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A new executive order signed this week by President Donald Trump seeks to give federal agencies more latitude over where they are based, as the White House and its U.S. DOGE Service say they are continuing to seek more cost savings for the government.
The order, signed by Trump on Tuesday, rescinds two prior executive orders issued by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and President Bill Clinton in 1996. These orders aimed to prioritize the placement of federal offices in the central business districts of cities, and to locate federal facilities in historic properties.
These orders have combined to exacerbate the associated costs with locating the facilities in these areas, Trump contended.
“Intended to improve these districts, President Carter’s order has instead prevented agencies from relocating to lower-cost facilities,” Trump said in his order. In regard to the 1996 order, he added that like Carter’s order, “President Clinton’s order failed to adequately prioritize efficient and effective government service.”
Revoking both of these orders will serve to “restore common sense to federal office space management by freeing agencies to select cost-effective facilities and focus on successfully carrying out their missions for American taxpayers,” the president said.
According to prior reporting from The Washington Post, the order arrived one day after a deadline for various federal agencies to submit plans for relocating offices out of the Washington, D.C., metro area.
“Ahead of Monday’s deadline for agencies to submit plans to relocate offices out of the region, officials in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been lobbying to land key agencies, sensing that D.C.’s loss of these major employers could be their economic gain,” according to the report.
One such agency that could be included in a potential relocation is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The order came roughly one month after HUD Secretary Scott Turner described the current headquarters facility as the “ugliest building in D.C.”
The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building has been home to HUD since the General Services Administration (GSA) completed its construction in 1968 using brutalist architecture. That came only three years after HUD was formed by an act of Congress, which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The building is named after the original HUD secretary.
But the building has also been a source of criticism for years, with some saying it’s in a general state of disrepair — complaints that have been part of conversations since long before Turner assumed his current role. HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett previously told Bloomberg that discussions about relocating the agency are ongoing.
The department is looking to move somewhere within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area that encompasses parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
While the outlet cites sources familiar with the discussions who say other areas like Texas, Missouri and Ohio are under consideration, Lovett denied these reports, saying there is “zero truth” to them.
