Bureaucrats Paying for Empty Buildings

Washington, D.C.’s empty federal office buildings rank high among the most visible examples of wasteful government spending. Where else can you find blocks of high-dollar real estate going virtually unused by the very bureaucrats for whom these buildings are supposed to be the nerve centers for their supposed vital functions?Well, as it turns out, you can find similar examples of federal government waste all across the country. Bureaucrats don’t just pay millions to not use their own buildings. They also pay millions in service contracts to outside organizations for facilities they don’t use either.Here’s what may become a classic case study. On February 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency Service (DOGE) announced that the federal government’s contract with a charity to operate a San Antonio facility had been terminated. DOGE found that the facility the government was paying $18 million per month to use as an overflow shelter had been sitting empty for some time.

A former ICE employee and Biden transition team member joined Family Endeavors in early 2021 and helped secure a sole-source HHS contract for overflow housing from licensed care facilities.

As a result, Family Endeavors’ cash and portfolio of investments grew from $8.3M in 2020… pic.twitter.com/KacroxqRcl— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 26, 2025

That tweet prompted San Antonio’s WOAI News4 I-team to launch an investigation into the reported government waste.https://youtu.be/o42M-yGmhnAThe charity Family Endeavors receives over 99% of its funding from the U.S. government. They responded to the San Antonio News4 report with the following statement:

“Endeavors was responsible for maintaining operational readiness at the Pecos shelter, ensuring the ability to scale from Cold Status (operationally ready but not actively serving children) to full use of 3,000 beds as needed,” said the organization.“Decisions regarding facility use and migrant sheltering locations were made by the federal government, not Endeavors. Any claims of corruption or mismanagement are baseless.”

Ethical problems abound

I have a few problems with the charity’s statement. First, the officers of the charity surely knew they were being paid millions each month to provide a service, whether they provided it or not. As recipients of federal funds to provide such a service, wouldn’t they have a fiduciary responsibility to U.S. taxpayers to regularly report their facility was going unused?It may not have been up to them, but they’re certainly not silent partners in this fiscal affair. Did they do the ethical thing and communicate that taxpayer dollars were going to waste? Or did they keep silent and keep pocketing those monthly $18 million checks and hope nobody would ever notice?Second, what of the bureaucrats behind this mess? Why keep paying out so much money, month after month, for effectively nothing? That’s a choice on their part that reeks of bureaucratic mismanagement.The third problem I have is with how this whole arrangement happened in the first place. It’s like a tale of corruption almost as old as time. A politically connected bureaucrat leaves Washington, D.C. Suddenly, millions of taxpayer dollars start flowing from Washington to where they went. How does that keep happening?At a minimum, it suggests the kind of insider dealing shenanigans we just saw with the EPA’s “gold bars being thrown off the Titanic” story is far from an isolated incident. It sounds much more like a standard operating procedure for bureaucrats looking to feather their nests after they leave Washington.It’s time to close that revolving door of bureaucrat profiteering.