It ain’t popular, but USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s push to get staff back to the office seems to have gotten the job done.
USAID is the federal agency with the highest building occupancy rate, according to an interim report from the Public Buildings Reform Board (at least among the 23 agencies they reviewed). However, Power’s back-to-office policy hasn’t gone down well with everyone. “Kinda wish we were at the bottom of the list,” one staffer who doesn’t like their commute told Devex.
The thing is, despite being at the top of the list, USAID is still using just 26% of its space inside the Ronald Reagan Building. And as the PBRB report notes, that’s a big waste of money: “Billions of dollars are being expended on buildings that should be disposed of given the new normal of low occupancy. The solution is relatively simple, but Congressional and Executive Branch leadership are urgently needed to change course.”