The lease on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site in Juneau has been canceled and the Ketchikan Federal Building appeared on a list of “non-core” properties that might be put up for sale as part of the Trump administration’s mass federal government downsizing, according to officials and published reports.
Those plans include laying off 50% of staff at departments such as NOAA and the Internal Revenue Service, administration officials have declared. Also being cut are grants and contacts, which in Juneau includes a $510,818 contract to a Goldbelt Inc. subsidiary specializing in cybersecurity, according to a U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website specifying claimed savings.
The website lists nine leases in Alaska that have been canceled as of Sunday, including a NOAA facility in Seward, a Rural House Service operation in Palmer and a U.S. Geological Survey space in Anchorage.
On Tuesday the administration published a separate list of 443 federal properties, including four in Alaska, that might be sold because they were “functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce.” However, the list was removed from the General Services Administration’s website Wednesday with a new announcement stating a new list was “coming soon.”
Such actions are adding to the uncertainty looming large for the many agencies, employees and fund recipients whose status is in limbo, due either to legal challenges or the Trump administration’s lack of clarity about announced cuts potentially affecting a wide range of programs.
Those include Juneau waiting weeks to hear about a work plan related to a $10 million flood protection study, Angoon’s village corporation Kootznoowoo Inc. in limbo since January about a $27 million in federal funds for a hydroelectric project and Trail Mix Inc. stating it may bypass maintenance of U.S. Forest Service trails due to the uncertainty of receiving its usual federal funds.
The Forest Service is among the hardest-hit agencies locally, with Trail Mix noting the “Juneau Ranger District has lost nearly its entire trails and cabins crew” as part of the Trump administration’s mass firings. Those firings also resulted in the loss of all but two employees at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, which planned to have a 19-person staff at Juneau’s most popular tourist attraction this summer.
Trump administration officials have said the cuts are aimed at eliminating waste, fraud and policies (such as diversity, equity and inclusion) that are at odds with the current administration. The administration and Republican-led Congress are also seeking to make tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump’s first term permanent, which in a U.S. House budget bill would cost $4.5 trillion.
Critics say the tax cuts primarily benefit the wealthy. A U.S. Treasury Department report published in January states households making more than $743,000 annually will see about a 4% increase in after-tax income while households making $96,000 or less would see a 1% average gain.
The DOGE site lists more than 6,000 cuts as of Sunday, although many lack sufficient detail to identify the program and/or location affected. The claimed savings of $105 billion are questionable since the total estimates have been drastically revised twice within the past week as more than 40% of the line items, including the five of the largest ones, were deleted or modified due to inaccurate claims, The New York Times reported Monday.
Lease cancellations and possible property sales
NOAA is among the federal agencies with a significant presence in Juneau, including its roughly 100,000-square-foot Auke Bay Laboratories. The cut listed at DOGE’s website references a 1,595-square-foot NOAA space in Juneau with a reported annual lease cost of $20,520 — with no address listed. Among NOAA’s other Juneau sites is the Alaska Region Office located in the downtown Federal Building — where sources say at least four people were fired last week — and the National Weather Service station in the Mendenhall Valley.
Axios reported Tuesday the Trump administration is targeting “key weather buildings” for closure.
Mass firings at NOAA began last Thursday that are expected to affect up to 10% of employees during the initial round, although agency officials — as with others in the federal government — aren’t confirming the number of people terminated locally or nationally. Among those expressing frustration about the lack of such data is U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has stated she is relying on social media posts among other sources to collect what information she can.
Among the biggest Alaska leases on the DOGE website’s canceled list are a 27,770-square-foot Forest Service site in Anchorage listed at about $1.18 million, a 20,326-square foot Geological Survey site in Anchorage at $855,176, a 14,805-square-foot Department of Commerce site in Anchorage at $664,745 and a 19,716-square-foot Rural Housing Service site in Palmer at $540,911.
Anchorage was also the primary target of the now-rescinded potential sale list. The three properties there included the 64,821-square-foot courthouse annex of Anchorage’s federal building along with the building’s 1,600-square-foot garage and its parking lot. The other property is the 33,746-square-foot Ketchikan Federal Building which, according to the Alaska Beacon, is “the U.S. government’s only pink-painted federal building.”
While the 748 listed lease terminations at the DOGE website are relatively easy to search by city and state, the more than 10,000 grants and contracts listed are less clear since many reference programs serving a broad region or designated program. One Juneau-specific contract located during the initial stages of an ongoing search by the Empire is for $510,818 to CP Marine LLC, a Goldbelt subsidiary whose website states it “focuses on using business drivers to guide cybersecurity activities and manage risk.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
