DOI cafeteria closed for years under Biden’s loose in-person work policy
EXCLUSIVE: The cafeteria in a top federal department resembles a ghost town after remaining empty and closed for years under the Biden administration, Fox News Digital has learned.
“You have federal workers showing up to protest President Trump’s plan to make government work for the people on a federal holiday, but they refuse to show up to work when they are collecting a paycheck courtesy of American taxpayers. It’s just nuts,” a source close to the situation told Fox News Digital.
The Department of Interior (DOI) cafeteria was initially closed during the coronavirus pandemic, but the lunchroom remained shut down for several years because the Biden administration did not require federal employees to work in person.
A photo taken on Feb. 20, 2025, reveals that five years after the pandemic, the lunchroom remains empty and unmanned, which “shows you exactly what’s wrong with the mindset of far too many federal workers,” the source tells Fox.
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An image, taken on February 20, 2025, shows an empty cafeteria at the Department of Interior (DOI). (Fox News Digital)
President Donald Trump, in January, took aim at Biden’s policies on remote work, warning that federal employees must return to in-person work by early February or “be terminated.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is requiring that all federal employees return to the office to comply with the return to work order issued by the president.
Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and US secretary of the interior nominee for US President-elect Donald Trump, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Al Drago)
“It’s understandable that the cafeteria would close during the pandemic, but the pandemic has been over for years,” the source told Fox. “Why did the Biden administration let everyone continue to work from home when there is real work to be done for the country?”
Fox News Digital also recently found that the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in Washington, D.C., was left relatively untouched since the first Trump administration, with an official saying it felt like a “taxpayer-funded ‘Spirit Halloween'” store.
The Trump administration has been conducting a sweep of federal departments over the past month, slashing spending, as well as making cuts to the workforce in an effort to downsize the government.
President Donald Trump has been cracking down on remote work since taking office in January. (Pool via AP )
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The U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts in January to leave their jobs or be forced to return to work in person.
About 75,000 federal employees have accepted Trump’s deferred resignation program and will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sept. 30.
Fox News’ Emma Colton and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
