Since October 2020, federal agencies have poured $4.6 billion into new furniture purchases while approximately half of federal workers continue to work from home, according to testimony given to a House Oversight subcommittee on Tuesday.
During his appearance before the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart highlighted the extravagant spending habits of government agencies. “Every family can relate to the cost of furniture. That’s why taxpayers are so incensed when they learn that federal agencies are freely spending billions of dollars every year on high-end pieces,” Hart explained. “Since fiscal year 2021, executive agencies have spent more than $4.6 billion on furniture alone.
🚨 WTF? The federal government spent over $4.6 BILLION on new office furniture in the past four years ALONE
Yet practically NOBODY actually comes into the offices to use it.
FRAUD. The American people need to start seeing ARRESTS! pic.twitter.com/kdA6mSQrkb
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 8, 2025
That amount could buy 9.2 million American families a modest $500 kitchen table.” The excessive spending comes at a time when federal office occupancy remains low. According to a House Oversight Committee report released in January, over half of federal employees continue to work either remotely or through a hybrid arrangement as of May 2024. Notable examples of lavish spending include the U.S. Agency for International Development’s $4 million furniture allocation for offices in Ukraine, West Africa, and Mozambique.
The agency’s Mozambique office alone spent $250,000 on Herman Miller chairs. The State Department wasn’t far behind, allocating $1.4 million for artwork in its global embassies, including $200,000 for two Alfred Jensen abstract paintings. “Our embassy in Islamabad,” Hart said of Pakistan, “is a place where you can put your feet up thanks to 40 Ethan Allen chairs, which cost taxpayers $120,000.”
The Department of Defense led the spending spree with $1.63 billion, followed by Veterans Affairs at $590.4 million, the Department of Justice at $555.5 million, the State Department at $508.5 million, and the General Services Administration at $552.8 million. Republican Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed her disapproval, stating that federal agencies shouldn’t maintain empires at taxpayers’ expense.
🚨🔥 DOGE Subcommittee Chair @RepMTG opens hearing on the federal government's massive real estate portfolio:
"We are pouring billions into empty office buildings & luxurious, high-end furniture, which they – the American taxpayers – can’t even afford for themselves."👇 pic.twitter.com/JhNft3RaoS
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) April 8, 2025
Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury acknowledged the issue as “a long-standing” problem, though she raised concerns that the DOGE effort might be “a front to help support billionaires who are trying to privatize public services.” Hart concluded his testimony with a stark assessment: “Today’s expansive, excessive and sometimes opulent federal real estate portfolio is both a monument to the federal administrative state and a mausoleum of lost dreams, opportunity, and freedom for American taxpayers.
Every dollar saved in Washington is a dream realized somewhere else in America.” The hearing also included testimony from David Marroni, acting director of physical infrastructure at the Government Accountability Office, and Ron Kendall, executive chair emeritus of the National Federal Development Association.
