The Trump administration has launched an initiative to identify federal lands suitable for building affordable housing, with two agencies forming a partnership to develop the plan.
The departments of Interior and Housing and Urban Development will tap into government-managed, “underutilized” lands by transferring them to states and localities to build housing. Leaders of the agencies noted that Interior controls more than 500 million acres of land that could be used to address the shortfall of 7 million housing units in the United States.
HUD and Interior on Monday created the Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing, seeking to deliver on a promise President Trump made during his campaign. Interior will work to identify lands that are underutilized and suitable for residential development, department Secretary Doug Burgum said in a video announcement, and then help streamline the land transfers. HUD will help identify areas with housing needs that coincide with federally owned land, Secretary Scott Turner said in the video, and work with states and localities to implement “tailored housing programs.”
The two vowed to make appropriate consideration for environmental and land use concerns.
“Working together, our agencies can take inventory of underused federal properties, transfer or lease them to states or localities to address housing needs, and support the infrastructure required to make development viable—all while ensuring affordability remains at the core of the mission,” Burgum and Turner said in a joint Wall Street Journal commentary.
They noted that building on federal land is typically “a nightmare of red tape,” but their task force would “cut through the bureaucracy.” They also pledged to work with rural and tribal communities.
“This isn’t a free-for-all to build on federal lands, although we recognize that bad-faith critics will likely call it that,” the secretaries said. “It’s a strategic effort to use our resources responsibly while preserving our most beautiful lands.”
Critics of the plan, such as Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., during a vice presidential debate with then Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, last year, have noted that the areas most drastically in need of affordable housing are in urban areas unlikely to be near any significant federal lands. Athan Manuel, Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program director, said the Trump administration’s actions to date do not support its new rhetoric.
“Since January 20, we’ve seen numerous attempts to give away our public lands to corporate polluters and billionaires, and the mass firing of federal workers, from the Bureau of Land Management to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, two agencies that would be critical in a sincere attempt to address the housing crisis,” Manuel said. “Donald Trump has made it clear who he thinks should reap the benefits of our public lands, and it’s not the American people.”
The departments will embark on their new initiative with fewer internal staff to help carry out the work. Interior on Monday sent early retirement and buyout incentive offers to its staff of nearly 70,000 employees, though only some of them will be eligible for the benefits. The department received the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Program authority from the Office of Personnel Management as it seeks to downsize its workforce ahead of expected reductions in force.
The authorities will help the department “restructure our organization to meet future restructuring needs,” it said in an email to employees that was obtained by Government Executive. Interior will be able to “streamline our core business” while “maintaining budgets and containing costs,” it added.
Employees will have until close of business on March 26 to accept the offers. Those who opt in and are approved must separate by May 31. The window will not be extended, Interior said, though it may create additional windows in the future. It added it could limit the number of employees it allows to take the incentives to ensure mission delivery is not impeded and certain positions—such as firefighters and law enforcement—are not eligible for them.
VERA allows employees to access their full retirement benefits before they would otherwise be eligible, while VSIP pays employees up to $25,000 to leave the agency. While the buyout incentive is meant to get ahead of potential layoffs, the benefits are muted as employees receiving reduction-in-force notices have either 30 or 60 days on the payroll before being separated and are also eligible for unemployment.
Interior is the latest agency to offer separation incentives to employees. The departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, as well as the General Services Administration and Transportation Security Administration all plan to request or have already received authority to offer early retirement and buyouts of up to the statutory cap of $25,000, according to employees briefed on the topic and internal documents reviewed by Government Executive. OPM has encouraged agencies to request from it those authorities, and no agency has yet suggested it will not do so.
HUD is also looking to significantly reduce its workforce. The department has issued RIF notices to all employees in the Office of Field Policy and Management at the General Schedule-13 level and below, according to a memo obtained by Government Executive. The employees will be terminated May 18. HUD is expected to issue more widespread RIFs in the coming weeks, according to an employee briefed on the matter.
Turner said last week that core HUD services would not be impacted, though he conceded cuts were forthcoming as he implemented change at the department.
