GSA Says DOGE‑Era Cuts, FAR Rewrite Yield $60B in Federal Contract Savings

The General Services Administration says that in the first year of President Trump’s second term it has generated more than $60 billion in federal contract savings and begun shrinking the government’s real‑estate footprint as part of the administration’s DOGE initiative. In a Tuesday announcement, Administrator Edward C. Forst said GSA has disposed of 90 federal properties—eliminating over 3 million square feet, avoiding an estimated $415 million in repairs and operations, raising $182 million from sales, and projecting another $730 million in lease and portfolio savings—while targeting 45 more high‑cost, underused buildings that could avert roughly $3 billion in future costs. Working with OMB, the Pentagon and NASA, GSA also completed what it calls a historic rewrite of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, cutting about one‑quarter of the rulebook (484 pages and 230,000 words) and removing more than 2,700 'shall' and 'must' mandates, alongside canceling over $500 million in underperforming contracts, trimming the federal vehicle fleet, and slashing compliance burdens for small vendors it says now can be onboarded in a single day. The agency further touts a 72% cut in the Federal Management Regulation, a 50% cut in the Federal Travel Regulation, elimination of 84 outdated bulletins, and projected $900 million in regulatory savings over a decade, while expanding use of Login.gov as part of a broader effort to reduce roughly $200 billion in annual improper payments. The claimed savings and aggressive deregulation are already drawing partisan praise as proof DOGE is delivering and quiet skepticism from watchdogs who note that headline 'savings' often rely on internal baselines and that easing procurement and property rules can also create new avenues for waste if oversight doesn’t keep pace.