HUD to Move to Virginia as Trump Seeks to ‘Rightsize' Federal Presence in D.C.

Yomiuri Shimbun

7 days ago

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be the first major federal agency to relocate its headquarters outside of D.C., part of a larger plan to restructure the federal government's real estate footprint.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Michael Peters, commissioner of the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service, said at a news conference that the agency will move 2,700 workers from a building in such a state of disrepair that the ceiling appears to be crumbling to a more modern building in the city of Alexandria.
While it's just across the Potomac River from D.C., the move could help Youngkin and his Republican allies portray Trump's actions as an economic boon to Virginia in advance of the swing state's race for governor this year and the 2026 congressional races.
'At every turn, this commonwealth has proven that we are strong, we are dynamic and we are winning,' Youngkin said, delivering a campaign-style speech at the news conference, where he was later presented with a 'HUD ♥ Virginia' sign.
But some prominent Virginia economists expect that Trump's broader actions to slash the federal workforce and government contracting will ultimately cost the state jobs overall.
The decision to move HUD to a building that already houses the National Science Foundation – displacing about 1,800 workers without a clear plan for where they will end up – also drew attention to the ways deep federal spending cuts have undermined federal research while upending the capital region's economy.
'This callous disregard for taxpayer dollars and NSF employees comes after the Administration already cut NSF's budget, staff and science grants and forced NSF employees back into the office,' the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3403, which represents many of those NSF employees, said in a statement.
The White House has indicated a desire to move federal agencies away from the District, and Trump set an April deadline for proposals to relocate federal agencies to 'less-costly parts of the country.' Peters said the HUD relocation is part of the administration's efforts to 'rightsize' the federal workforce and save money for the taxpayer, including about $500 million in deferred maintenance on the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, built in 1968, that currently hosts the agency's headquarters near L'Enfant Plaza in D.C.
Turner made it an early priority to relocate HUD's headquarters, which many career staffers agreed were in need of major repairs. Multiple buildings were under consideration over the past few months, including a space in the District previously occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and others in Virginia, according to staff. Turner prioritized new, updated spaces and seemed less keen on making repairs to the existing building in downtown D.C.
'We were very deliberate and very serious about our search,' Turner said Wednesday.
Still, news of the switch to the NSF building came as a surprise to HUD staffers when it began disseminating the information Tuesday night.
At the standing-room-only announcement Wednesday, a video presentation showed broken elevators and other areas in disrepair at the agency's current headquarters, set against pristine, bright angles of the new location. Officials touted a 'new golden age of HUD,' saying the move would save hundreds of millions of dollars and reinvigorate the department.
Turner also said during a staff meeting earlier Wednesday that 'the Weaver Building is not decent, it's not safe, it is not sanitary' – a reference to housing standards set by Congress. At one point, he said he was nearly hit in the head when a brick fell from the ceiling in his office. 'But thank God, by his grace, I'm still standing with you today,' he said, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Washington Post.
The move will displace the NSF, which has faced massive spending cuts under the Trump administration. Administration officials on Wednesday did not say where NSF workers would end up, but Peters said the search for a new location would aim to minimize disruption to those employees' lives and work.
There's broad agreement that HUD's office is in need of repairs, and staffers aren't uniformly opposed to moving. But multiple employees expressed concerns about what the move would mean for NSF staff and said HUD's announcement was thin on details, including a concrete timeline.
The frustration added to broader discontent at HUD, the backbone of the federal government's housing policy. Since Trump's inauguration, the department has sought to slash funding for fair-housing efforts, rental assistance, housing vouchers and homelessness prevention. So many staffers took the second-round buyout offer that officials are trying to get people to voluntarily move into vacant roles.
The anger among NSF workers was on display after the announcement, when Turner visited the building and was greeted by chants of 'We won't go' by staff members.
The AFGE local said that it had not been briefed on the relocation but that its members had heard that the plan included a private elevator, multiple parking spaces and a personal gym for the HUD secretary. The union accused Turner of prioritizing his own comfort over responsible government spending.
On Wednesday, Turner dismissed those allegations as 'ridiculous' and 'not true.'
'I didn't come to government to get nice things,' he said. 'This is about HUD employees, to have a safe place, a nice place to work.'
The move could be a loss for D.C. – although city leaders have also been exploring whether the disposal of certain federal buildings could pose real estate opportunities for the city.
Even before Trump's election, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had long advocated for federal employees to return to the office to bring more foot traffic – and sales tax revenue – back to the sleepier downtown. She traveled to Mar-a-Lago in December to speak with Trump about the federal workforce and government buildings.
Bowser also urged the federal government to turn over any underused federal office space to the District so the city could do something different with it.
But after the Trump administration began massive federal job cuts, and later announced a long list of federal buildings that could be disposed of, D.C. officials were worried that a problem with downtown office vacancies would be exacerbated. It was unclear Wednesday what will happen with the Weaver Building once it is vacated.
The District is expected to lose 40,000 jobs due to the job cuts, leading its chief financial officer to project a roughly $1 billion deficit over the next several years.
D.C. economic development officials are advocating for a more strategic partnership with the Trump administration to identify smaller-scale real estate opportunities that could benefit both D.C. and the federal government.
For example, not far from HUD, both federal and local officials have focused on a cluster of underused federal buildings – including offices for the Departments of Energy and Agriculture – just blocks from the National Mall.
While federal officials are reviewing a potential downsize, city officials have said they see an opportunity to turn the federal fortress into a lively new neighborhood between the Mall and the Wharf.
'We all want a strong and beautiful Nation's Capital – but that requires a committed federal partner,' Nina Albert, the city's deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said in a statement. 'We call on our federal partners to engage with us on a comprehensive strategy that pauses the relocation of agencies and plans for moves that maximize the benefit to both the federal government and the District.'
For Virginia, the Trump administration's efforts to slash, remake and relocate big chunks of the federal government are playing out as voters prepare to choose a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 members of the House of Delegates in November.
Democrats, led by gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger, hope to capitalize on the upheaval that they say could cripple the state's economy. The term-limited Youngkin and the Republican who hopes to succeed him, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, are on a trickier path as they stand with Trump and portray the cuts as short-term pain to get the nation's finances in order. Youngkin in particular has sought to cast the changes as an opportunity for Virginia.
Youngkin fully embraced Trump last year as the governor abandoned a long-teased presidential bid and set his sights on 2028. He cast HUD's decision as confirmation that by cutting taxes and reducing regulations, he has led purple Virginia to new heights as blue neighbors decline.
The governor noted that bond-rating agencies had just affirmed Virginia's sterling triple-A rating while D.C.'s and Maryland's were downgraded by Moody's.
'Virginia continues to be a magnet, a magnet welcoming opportunity wherever it presents itself,' Youngkin said, adding that his administration is searching for an alternative site to house the NSF.
Peters appeared to support that effort, saying, 'If I were a betting man, I would bet that they end up in Virginia.'
Youngkin also used the news conference as an opportunity to seize another potential economic windfall from the Trump administration. When asked about Trump's decision to pause a plan to move the new FBI headquarters out of D.C. to Prince George's County, Maryland, the governor said he would continue to pitch his state as an option.
'I would love the opportunity to present Virginia as the home for FBI headquarters,' he said.
Terry Rephann, regional economist for the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, said Virginia has not been enjoying as much economic success as Youngkin claims.
The center projects that 18,000 federal job losses will occur in Virginia, on top of thousands of layoffs at government contractors such as McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton, which in May announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs. Moreover, FBI leadership is pushing to move one of the bureau's elite training academies from Quantico, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama, The Post reported this month.
'The planned HUD relocation would only claw back a small portion of the anticipated losses, so it's still a net deficit situation,' Rephann said. 'When the governor says we'll come out a winner in this … I really don't see what data he has to support that.'
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) accused Youngkin of ignoring warning signs for the state's economy, including a 40 percent surge in year-over-year home listings in the D.C. region and five straight months of rising Virginia unemployment. (The state's unemployment rate in May was 3.4 percent, still below the national average of 4.2 percent.)
'All we hear from this administration is happy talk, cherry-picked statistics and theme-branded press events where he won't answer real questions,' Surovell said.
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins (D) said the HUD move will boost the city's economy. Officials have for years been struggling to increase commercial and office uses, in part to allow them to ease residents' growing tax burden.
The city was not involved in discussions to bring HUD to Alexandria, a city of about 160,000 people that is also home to 10 other properties that include federal office space. But city officials are hopeful that the NSF will remain in Alexandria as well.
'If we have those [HUD] jobs, in addition to keeping those jobs at NSF,' Gaskins said, 'this is a win that recognizes and is a testament to the investments we've put into making this a great city to work, and to live and to do business.'