Federal Real Property: The Judiciary Should Measure the Utilization of Its Administrative Space

GAO found the federal judiciary's administrative space, including clerks' and probation offices, made up 40 percent of its total footprint in fiscal 2025: 12.2 million usable square feet across 716 of 772 occupied facilities. The judiciary paid over $1 billion in rent that year, with administrative space's share of that bill holding steady at 39 to 40 percent since 2021, even as overall administrative square footage dipped just 1 percent. Ninety-six percent of the 234 commercially owned buildings used solely for administrative purposes house public defender and probation offices.

Despite tracking the square footage and the rent, the judiciary does not collect occupancy data, meaning it cannot calculate utilization, the ratio of how often space actually gets used against how much it's paying for. Judiciary officials told GAO measuring utilization simply hasn't been identified as a business need. GAO recommended the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts start collecting that data and set benchmarks; the office said it would consider the findings.

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