Break up D.C.

Washington, D.C. should be decentralized — not abolished, but broken up by relocating federal agencies across the nation. Here’s why dispersing the alphabet soup of agencies improves cost, resiliency, and outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• Lower costs: high DC housing and commuting are a tax on agencies and workers.
• Better lives: less congestion and shorter commutes increase productivity and retention.
• Reduce single‑point risk: stop clustering critical agencies in one target zone.
• Share prosperity: spread stable, well‑paid federal jobs into more local economies.
• Modern work: remote/hybrid tools make daily co‑location unnecessary for most roles.

1) DC Cost Of Living Is A Drag

Housing in and around DC is expensive; supply is tight and demand grows as government grows. Many employees live hours away, burning time and money commuting. Relocating agencies to regions with sane housing markets lowers overhead and improves recruiting.

2) Overdevelopment Hurts Quality Of Life

DC is crowded, cluttered, and busy. Parking is scarce and pricey; trains and highways are packed. Long daily commutes erode family time, health, and morale. Moving agencies to less congested regions returns hours to workers and yields better output with fewer burnout costs.

3) Concentration Is A Security Risk

Stacking many critical agencies in one area creates a single, high‑value target. A catastrophe in the capital can cripple essential functions. Geographic diversification reduces blast radius and improves national resilience.

4) Spread The Economic Lift

Federal payrolls are large and stable. When agencies relocate, they inject salaries into local businesses, housing, and services — compounding growth beyond the capital region. Scale that by dozens of agencies and the impact is transformational for many towns and cities.

“But Don’t We Need To Be In Person?”

Some work benefits from in‑person collaboration, but modern government already runs on telework: video conferencing, chat, shared docs, and secure systems. Many federal workers telework frequently or are fully remote — and the work still gets done. If teams can’t perform off‑site, that’s a leadership, staffing, or process issue, not a location requirement.

Implementation Sketch

1. Audit functions that truly require DC proximity (national leadership, classified briefings).
2. Identify candidate regions with workforce, universities, cost advantages, and infrastructure.
3. Phase migrations agency‑by‑agency with voluntary transfers and local hiring.
4. Maintain secure, smaller DC liaison offices for required interagency and congressional work.
5. Measure: retention, cost per FTE, output metrics, disaster recovery posture.

Break up D.C. The benefits outweigh the objections — financially, operationally, and culturally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Won’t this be expensive to implement?

There are transition costs, but ongoing savings from lower rents, salaries adjusted to local markets, and reduced turnover are significant. Phased moves and lease roll‑offs blunt upfront costs.

What about national security and classified work?

Keep secure DC cores for truly classified work; distribute non‑classified operations. Regional SCIFs and secure networks already exist across the country.

How do we keep coordination high across time zones?

Standardize collaboration tools and core hours; appoint cross‑site leads; keep small DC liaison teams for Hill and interagency touchpoints.

Won’t staff refuse to move?

Offer voluntary transfers, remote options, and hire locally in destination regions. Many will prefer lower costs and better quality of life.