Many of the 2.1 million people employed by the executive branch are bristling at President Donald Trump’s sweeping return-to-office order for the federal civilian workforce. But one deep blue faction of the Democratic coalition, the District of Columbia government, is showing that it quietly understands that Trump is helping to save Washington from financial ruin.
Remote work rules in place for nearly five years, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in many federal agencies, dating back a decade or so to President Barack Obama’s administration, are negatively affecting the local economy. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District of Columbia Council, governing a Democratic behemoth where Trump in 2024 won about 6% to Democratic rival Kamala Harris‘s 90%, are unlikely to denigrate the president’s get-federal-workers-back-to-the-office efforts.
D.C. Democrats understand, as national Democrats do not, that Trump’s RTO order is reviving the capital’s economy from the suicidal idiocy of the pandemic hysteria and its aftermath.
The Monday after Trump signed a return-to-office order for executive branch employees, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority posted a postpandemic record of rush-hour ridership, with 92,000 denizens of the DMV riding the Metro between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., while the D.C. government reported that an influx of sales tax revenue increased by 6% from last year. Restaurant reservations in Washington listed by OpenTable are also up 7% in February so far from last year, more than twice the national average.
In just the last month, the REVIVE Regional Vibrancy Index for the Washington metro region, compiled by the consulting firm CBRE, rose by 2.5%. That brought it 11.5% higher than the year prior. The figures suggest local business and development leaders have good reason to welcome Trump’s return to the White House for a second, nonconsecutive term.
While federal employees may only comprise one-tenth of the metropolitan area’s total workforce, the district’s economy runs downstream of their workday. Federal employees “meeting” on Skype seminars and Zoom synods amounted to employees across industries no longer swiping their Metro cards to commute into the city, patronizing local restaurants for meals, or stopping by watering holes for happy hour.
The commercial real estate market also took a hit. Nearly 1 in 4 office spaces remain empty in areas with high concentrations of federal workers, such as the Golden Triangle, which includes the western part of Washington’s business district, running from the White House to the once-heavily foot-trafficked Dupont Circle. That’s a major blow to an area that advertises itself as “home to more than 550 of D.C.’s best restaurants, shops, bars, parks, and more — just minutes from major D.C. attractions.”
As important as return-to-office rules for federal workers are, Trump’s second White House stint could offer an even greater gift to the District of Columbia and the nation more broadly. That would be downsizing the physical size of the federal government. It’s an idea explored by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency in its first month-plus of operations.
The Trump administration and D.C. government Democrats have overlapping interests in transforming obsolete, underutilized federal buildings near the National Mall into something else. Trump administration officials are eager to save the millions of dollars it costs to maintain those buildings. And district leaders welcome the chance to bring valuable real estate onto the tax rolls and breathe new life into federal enclaves that are dead zones outside business hours.
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One existing source of guidance is the federal Public Buildings Reform Board, enacted by Congress and Obama in December 2016, a bit over a month before he left office. The law aims to help Uncle Sam slim down by shedding excess property. The Public Buildings Reform Board now wants the federal government to sell or consolidate at least 20 buildings.
The district’s local “Office to Anything” initiative is already incentivizing developers to turn underused or superfluous office space into sorely needed housing stock. One major incentive for D.C.? The local government could finally garner tax revenue from property once it’s offloaded from the federal government. That’s one tax hike even Trump can support.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
