Voice of America building latest federal property up for sale
The sale of the VOA building could leave employees and contractors of the government-run international news networks without a home
[WASHINGTON] President Donald Trump’s administration is putting the home of Voice of America (VOA) up for possible sale – the latest in a series of high-profile buildings placed on a list for “accelerated disposal” as it moves to reduce the government’s real estate footprint.
The VOA headquarters, formally known at the Wilbur Cohen Federal Building, sits just south of the National Mall and is two blocks from the US Capitol. Originally built for the Social Security Administration, the historic million-square-foot building also houses offices for its parent agency, the Agency for Global Media, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The possible sale comes as Trump is trying to shut down VOA and its sister networks – including Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and the Open Technology Fund – as part of an effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk to scale back the size of the federal government.
Other properties put up for sale in recent weeks include federal courthouses in Los Angeles and Cleveland, a Food Safety and Inspection Service lab in St Louis and the Housing and Urban Development headquarters in Washington.
The steady stream of weekly for-sale notices comes after the General Services Administration – which acts as a landlord for other federal agencies – briefly listed 443 federal properties for possible sale all at once. The agency pulled back that list within 24 hours in March, but has moved forward with a more deliberative process since then.
Still, the sales are being placed on the fast track. Federal laws require excess properties to be available to governmental and nonprofit groups before they’re offered to private bidders, but GSA says the accelerated process will allow them to clear those regulatory hurdles while potential buyers conduct due diligence.
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The sale of the VOA building could leave employees and contractors of the government-run international news networks without a home – even if they’re successful in getting Congress or the courts to overturn Trump’s funding cuts.
A federal judge temporarily halted the VOA shutdown, but an appeals court later ruled that Trump can continue to withhold funding while a group of VOA journalists challenge their terminations.
Last year, the Biden administrated negotiated a 15-year lease for VOA in a new, modern office building in Washington. But in March, Trump’s nominee to run the Agency for Global Media cancelled that lease.
Senior adviser Kari Lake called the lease “obscenely expensive” given Trump’s directive to reduce operations to the minimum required by law. Instead, she’s said she would rely on One America News Network – a cable channel with a stable of pro-Trump hosts – to provide programming for the government-run networks. BLOOMBERG
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