The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency has deployed teams to agencies across the federal government.
But the acting head of the General Services Administration told employees there’s no DOGE team at the agency, contradicting reporting from many news outlets and observations from multiple agency employees.
During a question-and-answer segment in an all-hands meeting Thursday, a GSA employee asked Thursday acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian who is leading the DOGE team at the agency.
“There is no DOGE team at GSA,” Ehikian told the crowd, according to several GSA employees who attended the meeting.
“I’m running the administration, I do coordinate with the DOGE team, but I’m controlling the administration here. We don’t have a DOGE team here,” Ehikian said in a partial transcript obtained by Federal News Network.
Federal News Network previously reported that a DOGE team has taken up offices within GSA’s headquarters.
According to GSA employees who attended the meeting, a human resources official said the agency’s current hiring freeze will continue at least “at least” through Dec.31. President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day governmentwide hiring freeze on his first day in office.
An Office of Personnel Management spokesperson told Federal Network Network that the hiring freeze extension isn’t expected to apply governmentwide. A White House spokesperson referred questions about the hiring freeze to GSA.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that will put GSA in charge of buying all products and services that make up the 10 areas of category management.
“It is time to return the General Services Administration to its original purpose, rather than continuing to have multiple agencies and agency subcomponents separately carry out these same functions in an uncoordinated and less economical fashion,” the executive order states.
GSA officials told employees that the agency has “kicked off a cross-agency effort to consolidate governmentwide procurement,” and that the executive order will “quadruple” GSA’s contracting volume.
Federal News Network first reported last week that GSA is in the process of possible takeover of contracting functions of other federal agencies, as part of a reorganization of its procurement shop.
The agency is planning to take over the contracting functions at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, the Education Department, the Small Business Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Agencies across the federal government have also essentially frozen 200,000 purchase and travel cards, according to GSA, which is coordinating this work.
Ehikian told employees that the government credit cards now have a $1 spending limit, as part of a “government-wide effort to rein in unchecked credit card spending,” according to presentation slides obtained by Federal News Network.
GSA oversees the governmentwide charge card program, and set a $1 spending limit on cards belonging to its employees and contractors last month. The agency is also asking 15 other agencies to reduce their agency charge card limits, and the number and usage of cards.
A GSA spokesperson told Federal News Network that the agency is working to enhance the SmartPay program “by reducing admin costs, streamlining processes and improving oversight.”
“Last month we requested agencies pause their GSA SmartPay Travel and Purchase Charge Cards. However, the cards are still available for use in limited circumstances with continued proper oversight,” the spokesperson said.
In fiscal 2024, more than 4.5 million GSA SmartPay card and account holders spent nearly $40 billion, through approximately 90 million transactions.
GSA can’t legally set spending limits on other agencies, but it has sent memos to agency heads asking them to comply with its request. Ehikian, for example, called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to dramatically cut the number of authorized cardholders. The VA currently holds up to 19,000 purchase cards and has about 12,000 authorized cardholders across the department.
GSA’s request would have given the department less than 500 approved cardholders to manage purchases across a 479,000-employee workforce, and the largest integrated health care system in the U.S.
The VA plans to limit its purchase cards, but not to the extent outlined by GSA. A VA spokesperson told Federal News Network last month that the VA “will conduct its own review of the department’s charge cards and report its findings to GSA.”
The VA spends about $6 billion annually on its purchase cards — including essential medical supplies for the Veterans Health Administration to provide health care to veterans.
According to the presentation slides, GSA sent 11 governmentwide memos so far, pressing agency heads for updates on building occupancy, identification of wasteful contracts, changes to the governmentwide credit card program, reviews of internal policies and directives, and controlling IT spending.
GSA is also looking to cut about 50% of its governmentwide real estate portfolio.
According to the slides, GSA has publicly listed or sold 32 properties in its real estate portfolio. Those properties account for 1.4 million square feet of space, and are worth about $185 million. Those building sales, however, began under the Biden administration.
Former Public Buildings Service Commissioner Elliot Doomes told employees last December that GSA added 35 properties to its disposal pipeline within the previous 13 months, according to emails obtained by Federal News Network.
“No new federal property has been disposed of under this administration,” a GSA employee told Federal News Network.
GSA has also canceled leases for more than 680 “underutilized & vacant” offices. According to the presentation, the canceled leases account for 8 million in office space and account for more for more than $500 million in lease obligations.
Federal News Network first reported that GSA recently terminated nearly 1,000 leases — but is already trying to walk back hundreds of those lease terminations, after officials discovered that closing down these offices would impact public-facing benefits and services.
GSA earlier this month put the headquarters of more than a dozen agencies — including its own — on a list of more than 440 “non-core” assets it would consider selling. The agency revised the list hours after posting it, but deleted the whole list the next day. GSA’s website says a new list is “coming soon.”
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