Court documents filed by defendants on Monday reveal the next phase of DOGE’s plans for USIP. As of March 25, DOGE staffer Nate Cavanaugh—formerly installed at GSA—has replaced Jackson as the institute’s acting president, the documents show. They further state that Cavanaugh has been instructed to transfer USIP’s assets—including its real estate—to the GSA. The letter detailing those changes and instructions was signed by secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio.
In a separate undated letter, which was also included in the batch of documents filed with the court, Cavanaugh writes to GSA acting administrator Stephen Ehikian: “I have concluded that it is in the best interest of USIP, the federal government, and the United States for USIP to transfer its real property located at 2301 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, to GSA and to seek an exception from the 100 percent reimbursement requirement for the building.”
Cavanaugh goes on to estimate that the building has a “fair market value” of $500 million.
In another letter included in the lawsuit’s docket dated March 29, Project 2025 architect and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought writes to Ehikian to approve his request “to set the amount of reimbursement at no cost for the transfer of the United States Institute of Peace’s (USIP) headquarters building.”
To state this plainly: DOGE forced out the directors and staff of a nonexecutive agency and installed one of its own GSA staffers as president, and that person is now attempting to hand the institute’s $500 million headquarters over to the agency he came from, at zero cost.
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