Severe staffing cuts at GSA are harming agencies across government, watchdog says

The General Services Administration conducted staff cuts in 2025 without analyzing what skills it needed in order to fulfill its mission managing federal buildings, the top federal watchdog found in a new report, leaving the agency scrambling to address ensuing gaps in service. 

GSA’s Public Buildings Service oversees about 8,500 owned and leased government properties. As part of the Trump administration’s push to reduce the number of federal employees, the division went from more than 5,600 employees to approximately 3,100 over the course of 2025. 

The agency achieved these reductions mainly through voluntary separation incentives (such as the deferred resignation program) and layoffs. Investigators noted, however, that GSA in September 2025 rescinded nearly 400 of the PBS reduction in force notices. 

The Government Accountability Office flagged several issues with how GSA conducted the workforce reductions and broader reorganization: 

• Officials did not develop performance measures to gauge the success of the overhaul.
• PBS leadership communicated with stakeholders and employees about these changes generally after, rather than before, they were implemented. 
• The agency does not have a “systematic plan” to monitor that the reforms are being enacted. 
• Officials conducted an analysis to determine how many personnel with certain skills were needed to fill gaps in the agency only after staff cuts had already taken place. 

“The Public Buildings Service reduced staff first and then assessed workforce gaps retroactively,” investigators wrote. “Without strategic workforce planning that carefully considers long-term staffing plan and associated personnel costs, a skills gap between the agency’s workforce capacity and its mission-related activities may result in reduced or disrupted service delivery.”

One agency that relies on GSA reported that its employees are no longer certain who their point of contact is at PBS. Officials from another agency told GAO that they have had to extend project timelines due to a reduction in the number of employees who conduct cost estimates before a building can be offloaded. The Trump administration has prioritized selling underutilized federal properties. 

GAO recommended that GSA set performance metrics for the reorganization, continuously solicit and incorporate feedback from stakeholders, monitor implementation of the reforms and address skills gaps in PBS. 

GSA Administrator Edward Forst agreed with the recommendations in a letter attached to the report and reported some progress in implementing them, including establishing new agency performance goals and initiating employee pulse surveys.