For more than five decades, NASA occupied several floors of office space in Manhattan rented from Columbia University, where employees researched how warming temperatures could alter weather and climate. Last year, the Trump administration abruptly forced all NASA employees out of that office to save money, officials said. This year, it’s asking employees to move into new spaces. But the government continues to pay millions annually in rent for the old space.

NASA’s move was part of a series of relocations launched by the Trump administration across at least six federal agencies that have continued through the summer. The relocations, agency leaders say, will reduce the government’s real estate footprint, cut costs and decentralize operations away from the Washington, D.C. core.

But moving is costing the government money, an NPR review of public records shows, and federal workers say the relocations have been poorly coordinated and are causing work disruptions. The moves have also violated laws that require Congress to authorize relocations, according to two legal complaints filed in July against federal agencies and against senior leaders in the Trump administration.

NASA used to occupy multiple floors in the Armstrong Hall building at Columbia University. Now those floors are empty, but the government is still paying rent.

Shuran Huang for NPR

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Shuran Huang for NPR

“You’re not supposed to be doing this,” said Steve Gutierrez, a representative with the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing U.S. Forest Service workers. “But oversight [in Congress] hasn’t done anything about it.”

Costly leases, buildings with bedbugs, bad Wi-Fi

NASA employees who were based at Columbia, where they often collaborated on research with faculty, were instructed to report to four new locations spread out across New York City by August, emails reviewed by NPR show. But the federal government has continued to pay more than $2.5 million annually to rent the five, now-empty floors near Columbia, public records reveal. That lease doesn’t expire until 2031.

“Now they’re paying this extra money for us to have seats so that we can return to office,” said a current NASA employee who was told to report to one of the new locations. “It made zero sense.”