WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it was considering selling some of the US government’s most iconic properties, including the headquarters of the Department of Justice, the FBI and the building that once housed Trump’s luxury hotel.
The General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, said it had identified 443 properties totaling more than 80 million square feet that “are not core to government operations” and could be sold off.
The potential sell-off appears to be part of Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal government, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The downsizing drive has already led to 100,000 workers taking buyouts or being fired.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has claimed that it has saved $105 billion so far, in part by canceling leases on government properties. Budget experts have cast doubt on the reliability of DOGE’s data.
The GSA said in a statement it could “no longer hope” to secure the money to bring the properties up to date and said a sale could potentially save more than $430 million in annual operating costs.
Some of the buildings on GSA’s list, such as the Old Post Office, which formerly housed the Trump International Hotel, are newly renovated. Others, such as the FBI’s crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building, are widely seen as outdated. The GSA said in 2023 it would build a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.
It was not clear how many of the buildings on GSA’s list will eventually be put up for sale, or what sort of price they might bring. GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several agencies whose headquarters could potentially be sold off also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The list includes the headquarters for several major government agencies, including the Veterans Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
GSA’s own headquarters were also on the list.
The list includes skyscrapers in Chicago, Atlanta and Cleveland, as well as several Internal Revenue Service hubs that process tax returns.
The IRS said in an internal memo last week that it would sell those buildings starting in June, after the April tax filing season is complete.
US lists Department of Justice, FBI buildings in Washington for possible sale
https://arab.news/n2r7q
US lists Department of Justice, FBI buildings in Washington for possible sale
- The potential sell-off appears to be part of Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal government, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk
Top Australian writers’ festival canceled after Palestinian author barred
SYDNEY: One of Australia’s top writers’ festivals was canceled on Tuesday, after 180 authors boycotted the event and its director resigned saying she could not be party to silencing a Palestinian author and warned moves to ban protests and slogans after the Bondi Beach mass shooting threatened free speech.
Louise Adler, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, said on Tuesday she was quitting her role at the Adelaide Writers’ Week in February, following a decision by the festival’s board to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author.
The novelist and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah said the move to bar her was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced a national day of mourning would be held on January 22 to remember the 15 people killed in last month’s shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.
Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group, and the incident sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism, and prompted state and federal government moves to tighten hate speech laws.
The Adelaide Festival board said on Tuesday its decision last week to disinvite Abdel-Fattah, on the grounds it would not be culturally sensitive for her to appear at the literary event “so soon after Bondi,” was made “out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event.”
“Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies,” the board said in a statement.
The event would not go ahead and remaining board members will step down, it added.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, British author Zadie Smith, Australian author Kathy Lette, Pulitzer Prize-winning American Percival Everett and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis are among the authors who said they would no longer appear at the festival in South Australia state, Australian media reported.
The festival board on Tuesday apologized to Abdel-Fattah for “how the decision was represented.”
“This is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” it added.
Abdel-Fattah wrote on social media that she did not accept the apology, saying she had nothing to do with the Bondi attack, “nor did any Palestinian.”
Adler earlier wrote in The Guardian that the board’s decision to disinvite Abdel-Fattah “weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t.”
The South Australian state government has appointed a new festival board.
