White House eyes sale of historic Voice of America offices, cancels lease for new facility

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to put the longtime headquarters of Voice of America (VOA) up for sale, marking another step in its broader effort to shrink the federal government’s real estate footprint.

The building, officially known as the Wilbur Cohen Federal Building, is the latest high-profile property added to a list for “accelerated disposal", Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Located just south of the National Mall and only two blocks from the US Capitol, the historic million-square-foot structure was originally built for the Social Security Administration. Today, it houses VOA, its parent agency—the US Agency for Global Media—as well as offices for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed sale comes amid President Trump’s ongoing push to shut down VOA and its sister organisations: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and the Open Technology Fund. This move is part of a broader initiative, reportedly influenced by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.

Other federal properties recently listed for potential sale include courthouses in Los Angeles and Cleveland, a Food Safety and Inspection Service laboratory in St. Louis, and the Housing and Urban Development headquarters in Washington.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages government properties, briefly floated a mass sale of 443 federal sites in March, but withdrew the list within 24 hours. Since then, it has adopted a more measured approach, issuing weekly for-sale notices. However, the process remains expedited. While federal law requires that surplus government properties first be made available to state and local agencies or nonprofits, GSA says the fast-tracked sales will comply with those regulations while also allowing private buyers to begin due diligence.

Selling the VOA building raises questions about where employees and contractors of the international news networks would operate from, especially if they succeed in convincing Congress or the courts to reverse Trump’s funding cuts.

A federal judge previously issued a temporary injunction against shuttering VOA, but a subsequent appeals court ruling allowed the administration to continue withholding funding while a group of VOA journalists challenges their dismissals.

During the Biden administration, officials negotiated a 15-year lease for VOA to relocate to a new, modern office space in Washington. However, in March, that lease was cancelled by Trump’s nominee to lead the Agency for Global Media.

Senior adviser Kari Lake, a vocal Trump ally, called the lease “obscenely expensive” and inconsistent with Trump’s directive to reduce operations to the legal minimum. Instead of maintaining the VOA and its associated broadcasters, Lake has said she would rely on One America News Network (OANN), a pro-Trump cable outlet, to provide government-run media programming.

By Tamilla Hasanova