Ohio Republican congressman Warren Davidson has introduced a bill that would move all federal government agency headquarters out of DC. The “Drain the Swamp Act” would allow just ten percent of the federal workforce to remain in Washington.
The measure says that plans for each agency’s headquarters relocation would have to be submitted within a year—and approved by the Office of Management and Budget—with a September 2026 goal of implementation. The new headquarters’ locations, Davidson believes, should be outside of the DC metropolitan area (including Loudoun and Prince William Counties), and agency heads should “maximize any potential cost savings” and consider national security risks. Excluded from the requirement would be the executive office of the President.
Passage of the bill would repeal the federal statute that requires federal agency headquarters to be in Washington. But the passage seems like a longshot’s longshot. Even with a House GOP filled with virulently anti-Washington candidates, there hasn’t been any noticeable chatter about the bill outside of Davidson’s own commentary.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
