DOGE, without warning, cancels leases on buildings across Nebraska

For more than 15 years, the brick building in south Lincoln has served as a local hub for the U.S. Department of Agriculture — a place where farmers meet face-to-face with federal workers  overseeing complex conservation projects on their land. 

But last month, a new force in federal government plunged the service center’s future into uncertainty. 

The Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, moved to cancel the building’s lease months early and claimed it saved taxpayers more than $62,000. For now, the office is still occupied and the federal government hasn’t banked any savings. 

When asked about plans for the building last week, a manager who emerged from a back office responded with four words: “We don’t know anything.” He declined to give his name. 

DOGE reports on its “Wall of Receipts” to have terminated leases for five federal buildings in Nebraska, including a National Park Service visitor center on the Niobrara River and an IRS tax-filing help office in the Panhandle. 

A sixth office, the Edward Zorinsky Federal Building in downtown Omaha, appeared on a now-deleted list of “non-core” federally owned buildings that could be sold. The 357,000 square-foot building hosts employees from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Housing and Urban Development and the IRS. 

Federal employees who work in the buildings, landlords who rent them out and U.S. Rep. Don Bacon told the Flatwater Free Press they received little or no advance notice before the lease terminations appeared on DOGE’s website. It’s still unclear whether the federal tenants will actually have to move out and find new offices.

The local lease terminations are a drop in the bucket nationally. DOGE reports it has whacked nearly 800 federal leases, though many of the terminations, including at least four in Nebraska, won’t kick in for months.

Musk and DOGE say the lease terminations target “unused” and “underutilized” buildings and amount to about $500 million in savings. DOGE has not explained how it arrived at that figure and did not respond to questions posed by FFP.

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican who represents Lincoln and parts of eastern Nebraska, endorsed DOGE’s efforts to decrease the size of government.

“DOGE has been working to shrink the federal workforce,” Flood said in an emailed statement. “As the federal workforce declines, the need for office space will also decline across the country.”

The U.S. General Services Administration, which leases buildings for the federal government, is working to “secure suitable alternative space” for some agencies as their overall footprints diminish, said agency spokesman Osvaldo Equite, who didn’t respond to specific questions.

At least four of the buildings on the list in Nebraska are currently in use by their respective agencies, according to FFP reporting.  

DOGE is terminating leases and other contracts so it can claim premature and inflated savings figures, said Charles Tiefer, a professor emeritus at the University of Baltimore School of Law and federal contracting expert. 

It’s also, he said, leaving a wake of wreckage for federal agencies and the people they serve.

“It’s chaos. It’s amateur hour,” Tiefer said.

Local critics say closing the public-facing buildings on DOGE’s list would hurt federal workers, farmers seeking guidance on conservation programs and visitors to one of Nebraska’s natural wonders. 

Saving taxpayers money is an admirable goal, but DOGE’s approach is beyond reason, said George Johnson, who leases out the National Park Service visitor center in Valentine to the federal government.

“I think a lot of that inefficiency could have been cured with just a scalpel instead of an ax, and everybody would’ve been happier,” Johnson said. “The way it is now, most people are gonna be pissed off about it.”

Trouble on the river

When Sändra Washington visited the Niobrara River with her NPS colleagues shortly after Congress bestowed its designation as a national scenic river in 1991, she found the town of Valentine a bit sleepy.

Today, the Sandhills city is a regional tourist destination with hotels, canoe outfitters, a boutique, a bookstore and a local brewery clustered around Main Street.

The Park Service’s steady presence along the river helped that growth, said Washington, a retired NPS associate regional director and current Lincoln city council member. Last year, more than 74,000 visitors entered the park — up from 54,000 in 2004, according to NPS records.

The National Parks visitor center on U.S. Highway 20 opened about two decades after the river’s designation. Turning the old sporting goods store into the agency’s home wasn’t simple or cheap.

Johnson said he spent more $500,000 renovating the building to accommodate the Park Service’s inch-thick book of specifications, including blast-proof glass windows and steel under the sheet rock in the gun storage room.

After every local contractor turned down the complex project, Johnson, a vinegar maker and retired rancher, got licensed to complete it.

“This was essentially like building a completely new building, but the shell was still there,” Johnson said. “I swear that two years of my life I thought I was gonna have a heart attack before we got it done.”

The visitor center, busier in the summer, features exhibits about the river’s ecology and history, a small theater and a few shelves of souvenirs for sale. It’s also the scenic river’s headquarters, and National Park Service staff work out of the building year round.

Last month, Johnson received a short email from the General Services Administration that could spell the end of the Park Service’s 13-year tenancy. It said the lease would be terminated Sept. 30 — about 15 months before it was set to expire.

Johnson said he’s still not sure whether the agency will actually move out, but if they do, he thinks it would be a major blow to Valentine.

Tiefer, the retired law professor, said the DOGE’s unprecedented mass cancellation of leases ignores normal rules for ending federal contracts.

Typically, it’s a back-and-forth conversation where landlords can request funds from the government for the work they’ve put into the property — it’s not as simple as sending a termination email, Tiefer said.

“The federal government is not in the business of defrauding landlords,” Tiefer said. “It’s not in the business of luring them in and ripping them off for doing proper work.”

The Valentine visitor center is one of more than two dozen lease terminations at National Park Service offices nationwide, making it one of the harder hit agencies.

A Park Service spokesperson said it’s “working with GSA to ensure facilities or alternative options will be available, as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management.”

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer said in an emailed statement that federal contracting decisions are up to the executive branch and she approves of DOGE’s actions.

“Right now, President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are working to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the federal government,” Fischer said.

Rep. Adrian Smith said he appreciates Trump’s cost-cutting efforts and the “transparency provided by sharing DOGE’s work online.”

A spokesperson for Sen. Pete Ricketts did not respond to a request for comment.

Washington worries that would-be visitors will pass over the Niobrara if there’s nowhere to “start their adventure.”

Visitors, especially first-timers, would lose a critical source of information about the park if rangers are extracted, said Washington, a board member for the National Parks Conservation Association. There are also practical concerns, she said: Who will clean bathrooms, empty trash cans and maintain trails?

The National Park Service visitor center nearest to Valentine, along the Missouri River in South Dakota, is also on DOGE’s termination list. If both closed, the nearest agency office would be more than 100 miles away.

“It becomes sort of untenable to think about how they replace this,” Washington said. “We’re left with ‘I don’t know’ as the answer to many things.”

Savings vs. services

Justin Gantz spent a few workdays in Lincoln at the USDA office now on DOGE’s termination list. There, he designed a center pivot irrigation system with an engineering team.

But an email that landed in his inbox Feb. 13 abruptly ended his time at the USDA, eliminating the soil conservation job he’d held for little more than a month – a job he’d been all but promised by the federal government while interning during college.

Gantz, an early casualty of DOGE, said he isn’t surprised the cost-cutting team is trying to yank  the carpeted office floor out from under his former colleagues.

“My fear is that it’s not so much disorganization as it is willful disregard for the well-being of public servants,” Gantz said in an email.

Local farmers frequent the building daily, Gantz said, to speak with employees processing applications for voluntary cost-share programs that aim to improve soil health and water and air quality.

If the Lincoln office goes away, farmers might have to drive to Seward or Blair, Gantz said.

A USDA employee working in the building said on Feb. 27 that workers weren’t informed the lease had been canceled until after it appeared on the DOGE website.

Employees being blindsided by the lease termination signals “complete violation of the chain of command,” said Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen.

“The process is, in my opinion, purposely atrocious. It’s intended to inflict harm and do damage,” Hansen said.

A USDA spokeswoman said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “supports President Trump’s directive to eliminate wasteful spending and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively.” She did not respond to specific questions about the building.

Allison Santana, a property manager for building owner Krueger Development, said she hopes the USDA stays in the building. She declined to comment further.

Omaha to Scottsbluff

Only one federal property in Nebraska, Omaha’s Edward Zorinsky Building, was among the 443 initially listed by the federal government as being disposable.

The General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, removed the list hours after it was posted online. Its website says a new list is “coming soon.”

Joe Munch, who manages the Zorinsky Building, said he hasn’t gotten any further information about the building’s future since the list was deleted. 

“I don’t know if they changed the designation on this building now or what they’re intentions are,” Munch said. “Trust me, I’m trying to find out.”

Bacon, a Republican representing most of the Omaha metro area, said the Zorinsky building is beautiful and shouldn’t be sold if it’s being fully utilized.

A couple of federal offices in west Omaha could also be on the chopping block. DOGE reported terminating leases for the Small Business Administration’s district office and a Food and Drug Administration office.

Out west, DOGE reported that it’s ending the lease for an IRS taxpayer assistance office in Scottsbluff three years before it was to expire.

An employee at Scottsbluff’s First Interstate Bank, the landlord for the IRS office, said the bank learned of the lease cancellation on March 4, a day after it was posted on the DOGE website.

More than 40 other federally leased buildings in Nebraska haven’t been touched.

Bacon said he supports DOGE getting rid of unused office space but noted that it should be transparent with agencies and employees about closings and relocation plans. 

“I have consistently said, ‘measure twice and cut once,’” Bacon said in an emailed statement. “DOGE needs to evaluate the square footage needed to house employees that have been ordered to return to the office, and make sure proper accommodations are made.”