DOGE could cancel 20 federal office leases in North Carolina, including these 4 in Raleigh

Multiple office leases in Raleigh are among those that may be canceled by the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency.

The “wall of receipts” included on the agency’s website lists 20 offices in North Carolina among hundreds of leases that may be canceled in an effort to save taxpayer money. President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders tasking the agency with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Thousands of contracts and grants are also canceled, according to the website. With fraud and improper payment deletion, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings and workforce reductions, DOGE says it can save about $105 billion.

However, DOGE has erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts on the “wall of receipts” that included mistakes inflating the agency’s success in saving money, The New York Times reported.

Four Social Security Administration offices in North Carolina are on the DOGE’s list of leases to be canceled. The closures could mean that residents in the far western or eastern parts of the state travel farther to find an open office, The News & Observer previously reported.

DOGE is not the only agency to share plans to shed real estate in an effort to cut costs. The U.S. General Services Administration previously listed three federal buildings in North Carolina for sale on its website, The N&O previously reported, though those listings have since been removed from the agency’s website.

Which Raleigh offices are included in the ‘wall of receipts’?

Four federal offices in Raleigh are among the 20 in North Carolina on the DOGE list, as of Wednesday, March 12:

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office
• Departmental Management office of the Office of the Inspector General
• Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division office
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office

What is the role of each office?

• The Raleigh ATF office on Falls of Neuse Road is one of the bureau’s local offices and houses staff to help the public with questions and concerns about violent crime, federal firearms licensing and regulation, federal explosives licensing and investigation and arson investigations. The Falls of Neuse Road office has an annual lease cost of $142,636, according to the DOGE website.
• The Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division has an office on Bland Road in Raleigh, with an annual lease cost of $122,754. The division is within the Department of Labor and works to “promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce.”
• The EEOC (which declined to comment on this story) has an office on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, and the “wall of receipts” shows an annual lease cost of $306,333. The EEOC enforces federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against job applicants or employees because of characteristics including their race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation or age.

• The Departmental Management office has an annual lease cost of $64,157. The DOGE website does not specify where the office is.

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor directed The N&O to the General Services Administration, which has jurisdiction over federally managed buildings.

A General Service Administration spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer in a statement that the agency “is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization,” including terminating “many soft term leases.”

“To the extent these terminations affect public facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space,” the statement said. “In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 2:46 PM.

Renee Umsted

The News & Observer

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Renee Umsted is The News & Observer’s Affordability Reporter. She writes about what it costs to live in the Triangle, with a consumer-focused approach. She has a degree in journalism from TCU.