Musk’s DOGE orders FTC staff to move to USAID offices

Staff at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington were told Wednesday that they must leave their current offices in the coming months and move into the building being vacated by the US Agency for International Development, according to people familiar with the matter, Report informs via Bloomberg.

The surprise order, the people said, came from the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led team that President Donald Trump has charged with shrinking the federal workforce.

The people were granted anonymity to discuss the decision.

The majority of the antitrust and consumer protection agency’s 1,300 employees work out of a Washington building that also leases space to several other federal agencies. A 10-year lease on the FTC space ended last year, but had been extended for an additional three years through 2027.

The FTC’s headquarters, which houses the agency’s five commissioners and senior leaders, are located in a different government building a few blocks away from the USAID building.

The General Services Administration, which leases office space on behalf of federal agencies, had sought congressional approval for a new 20-year lease for the FTC. While the Senate approved the new lease request in November, the House had yet to take it up.