Three federal buildings in Utah that once housed hundreds of employees are on the chopping block amid a push by the Donald Trump administration to cut federal spending.
Among the Utah buildings listed as “non-core assets” that have been “designated for disposal” are the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City, an Internal Revenue Service center in Ogden and a facility on Tabernacle Street in St. George.
The U.S. General Services Administration announced the pending closures Tuesday along with the likely sale of hundreds of other federal buildings across the country.
“Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” GSA said in a Tuesday news release. “We can no longer hope that funding will emerge to resolve these longstanding issues.”
According to a statement from a GSA spokesperson to The Salt Lake Tribune, the list of properties the government is looking to sell is “subject to change,” and the agency’s Public Buildings Service is “fully committed to meeting the mission needs of our customer agencies and delivering world-class work environments for the federal workforce as they return to office.”
GSA said it estimates the move so far affecting 443 buildings will lead to “potentially saving more than $430 million in annual operating costs.”
According to the GSA website, over 600 employees from 24 federal agencies work in the Bennett building. It was renovated in 2001.
GSA announced it would be disposing of the James V. Hansen Federal Building on 25th Street in Ogden in December, the Standard-Examiner reported. Almost a dozen federal agencies, including the IRS, Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture have offices there.
Responding to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Sen. John Curtis pointed to a recent op-ed the new senator published in the Deseret News.
“What President Trump is doing now — scrutinizing government spending on programs and employees through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and looking for areas to trim — is something any responsible executive would do,” Curtis wrote. He added, “I agree with those concerned that the DOGE approach has appeared reckless and rash, and that we should show more compassion and dignity to those affected by its mission.”
None of Utah’s other congressional representatives — including Rep. Blake Moore, who co-chairs the DOGE caucus in Congress, but in recent days has expressed frustrations with DOGE’s actions — responded to questions about the GSA announcement.
A report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah estimates that, between July 2023 and June 2024, Utah had nearly 57,000 federal employees. Among them were nearly 20,000 civilian defense employees and nearly 16,000 military employees.
Most federal employees in the state — 61.8% — worked for the Department of Defense, primarily at Hill Air Force Base. The rest were primarily employed by the IRS, the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Veteran Affairs.
Recent firings and layoffs, however, have affected many federal employees in the state, though the exact number of Utah employees terminated remains unclear. The staff reductions are part of Trump and DOGE’s recent efforts to slash government spending.
