3 More Buildings DOGE Is Now Set to Close in Minnesota

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Washington is still sharpening its axe and could be now getting ready to chop three more buildings and offices here in Minnesota.

Since taking office back in January, the Trump administration has been on a mission to reduce the federal government. A few weeks ago, it identified 11 different offices and buildings that could be on the chopping block here in Minnesota. And now it has apparently added three more offices to that list.

DOGE was created on January 20th, 2025, thanks to an Executive Order signed by President Trump. According to the official DOGE website, its purpose is as follows:

This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.

Previous DOGE efforts have been undertaken at various federal agencies and have resulted in the layoffs of thousands of federal employees. This additional round of cuts, however, deals with office space in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that is leased by three different federal agencies.

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The DOGE website claims to have saved $115 billion dollars so far (which equals out to roughly just over $714 per taxpayer, it said), using the following techniques, which include a 'Combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions,' the DOGE website notes.

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This report from Fox News says DOGE has terminated approximately 750 federal land leases across the country that have affected numerous federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and others. And now, we might soon be able to add 3 more offices here in the North Star State to that list.

According to the Real Estate section of the DOGE website, these Minnesota offices were all previously set to have their leases canceled:

1. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - South St. Paul
2. Employment Standards Administration, Office of Contract Compliance PR - Minneapolis
3. Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division - Minneapolis
4. Farm Service Agency - County - Baudette
5. Federal Highway Administration - St. Paul
6. Indian Health Service - Bemidji
7. Internal Revenue Service National Office - Bloomington
8. Internal Revenue Service National Office - St. Cloud
9. Mine Safety Health Administration - Hibbing
10. National Park Service - Crane Lake
11. National Park Service - St. Paul

And now, the DOGE website has listed three more offices it says will have their leases terminated, part of its broader plan that has compiled '657 lease terminations totaling 7,919,726 square feet and around $350 million' in lease savings:

• A National Park Service office in St. Paul, at 120 Kellogg Boulevard West in the Science Museum of Minnesota
• The Winona district office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge, housed at 102 Walnut Street.
• A field office for the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board in St. Paul, in the Great Northern Building at 180 East 5th Street.

It's worth noting that most of these offices are not housed in their own stand-alone buildings but instead lease office space in other facilities. So the entire building would not be closed, only the affected offices. Not much more is known about just when these cuts will take place, but you can check out the Real Estate section of the DOGE website to see more about these offices and the money DOGE will apparently save by closing them.

Meanwhile, DOGE isn't the only arm of the federal government in business these days, of course. The U.S. Department of State is the agency charged with compiling a list of travel advisories to keep U.S. citizens safe. Keep scrolling to check out countries you should avoid traveling to, as they're now listed as Level 4 'Do Not Travel' list!

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