GSA slashed building staff 45% -- then started planning
Summary
The Public Buildings Service, which manages GSA's roughly 8,500 federal buildings and leases covering 359 million square feet and collects more than $10 billion a year in tenant rent, cut its staff by about 45% -- from almost 5,700 to just over 3,100 employees -- between September 2024 and November 2025. GAO's April 2026 audit found PBS reduced staff first and only began assessing the resulting skills gaps afterward, the reverse of what workforce-planning leading practices call for; five selected tenant agencies said they've felt the effects, including longer project timelines because PBS has fewer cost estimators available to calculate the cost of releasing unneeded space. GAO's July 6, 2026 priority-recommendations letter to GSA still lists fixing this among its top three priorities. GSA otherwise closes GAO's recommendations faster than almost any agency -- a 97% five-year implementation rate versus a 77% government-wide average -- but even GSA's priority list grew this year, from 8 to 11, despite closing two.
Cut first, planned later
found that PBS reduced staff first and only began assessing the resulting skills gaps afterward⧉ -- the reverse of what leading workforce-planning practices call for. Officials said in September 2025 they were mapping existing employees into new roles, but that effort started only after the cuts and the new org chart were already decided; by December 2025, officials still weren't sure how many more people they needed to close the gaps. Both federal real property management and strategic human capital management have been on 's High-Risk List since 2003 and 2001, respectively -- this reorganization touches both at once.
View data as table
| Sept. 2024 | 5,700 |
|---|---|
| Nov. 2025 | 3,100 |
Tenant agencies are already feeling it
interviewed five selected tenant agencies, and most said they'd felt the effects⧉ of the 2025 staffing cuts. One agency said fewer PBS cost estimators meant longer waits for the cost calculations needed to release unneeded space back to . Another said it was no longer clear who its points of contact were at the regional level after the reorganization -- a relationship that used to mean frequent project check-ins.
Still a top-three priority, even for a high performer
's July 6, 2026 priority-recommendations letter⧉ to still lists the PBS reorganization -- and specifically the missing workforce planning -- among its three priority areas, alongside shared-services performance data and federal-award oversight. That's despite otherwise being one of 's best-performing agencies: a 97% five-year recommendation-implementation rate against a 77% government-wide average. Even so, 's own priority list grew this year, from 8 recommendations in May 2025 to 11 in June 2026, after 2 were implemented and 1 lost priority status but 6 new ones were added. made four recommendations specifically on the PBS reorganization -- including that finally do the strategic workforce planning it skipped -- and agreed with all of them.
View data as table
| Government-wide | 77% |
|---|---|
| GSA | 97% |
View data as table
| May 2025 | 8 |
|---|---|
| June 2026 | 11 |
The takeaway
- PBS cut nearly half its staff before figuring out what the cuts would cost it. Almost 5,700 employees fell to just over 3,100 between September 2024 and November 2025 -- a 45% decline -- and found the skills-gap assessment only started afterward.
- Tenant agencies are paying for it in delays. Fewer cost estimators mean longer waits to release unneeded federal space, and at least one tenant agency lost track of who its regional contacts even were.
- Even a strong overall performer left this one unresolved. 's 97% five-year implementation rate beats the 77% government-wide average, but its priority-recommendation count still grew from 8 to 11 this year, and 's July 2026 letter keeps the PBS reorganization on the priority list.
Reorganization and staffing findings are from -26-108155, "Federal Real Property: Leading Practices Could Help Better Achieve Its Reorganization Goals," published and publicly released April 2026 -- read directly in full (27 pages). Recommendation-tracking figures (97%/77%, 38 open/11 priority, the 8-to-11 timeline) are from -26-108996, 's July 6, 2026 priority-recommendations letter to , which confirms the reorganization finding remains an open priority as of that date.
Sources(2) ▾
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Real Property: Leading Practices Could Help GSA Better Achieve Its Reorganization Goals (2026-04-14) — -26-108155, published and publicly released April 14, 2026, a report to congressional committees requested by a provision in the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024. Based on 's review of Public Buildings Service reorganization actions from March-December 2025 against selected leading reform practices, plus interviews with five selected tenant agencies and former Commissioners. Read the full 27-page PDF directly (extracted with pdftotext -layout) -- this is the underlying audit behind the reorganization/workforce-planning finding that 's July 6, 2026 priority-recommendations letter to (doc-gao26-108996) names as one of its three current priority areas. gao.gov · original document
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Priority Open Recommendations: General Services Administration (2026-07-06) — -26-108996, letter from Acting Comptroller General to Administrator Edward C. Forst, dated July 6, 2026 -- the annual priority-open-recommendations letter for . Confirms the Public Buildings Service reorganization/workforce-planning finding (from doc-gao26-108155) remains an open, -flagged priority as of this letter, and provides 's overall recommendation-implementation-rate and priority-recommendation-count context. Direct gao.gov PDF asset access intermittently returns HTTP 403 and no Wayback snapshot of this specific asset was available at capture time; the Artemis-sealed copy of the product page serves as the one-click capture. gao.gov · original document
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's Public Buildings Service manages about 8,500 federal buildings and leases⧉ covering 359 million square feet, housing more than 100 tenant agencies, and collects over $10 billion a year in rent. Between September 2024 and November 2025, PBS cut that workforce by about 45% -- from almost 5,700 employees to just over 3,100 -- according to an April 2026 audit.