The co-chairs of the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” an unofficial advisory panel nicknamed DOGE, made the rounds on Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with GOP lawmakers and lay the groundwork for next year’s effort to slash federal spending and regulations.
Tesla founder Elon Musk and biotech magnate Vivek Ramaswamy spent much of the day crisscrossing the Capitol to court the lawmakers whose support would be critical to implement major budget cuts.
But they mostly stayed out of public sight, meeting congressional leaders and rank-and-file Republicans in closed-door sessions to explain their mission and build political support.
“It’s a new thing, and this is a new day in Washington and a new day in America,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters before the first of two private sessions he hosted for lawmakers with the new DOGE leaders handpicked by President-elect Donald Trump. “There is an enormous amount of waste, fraud and abuse in the government. I think everyone knows that intuitively.”
Musk has said he envisions cutting at least $2 trillion from annual budgets, though he and Ramaswamy have stopped short of calling for overhauling entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare that make up about two-thirds of federal spending.
But he and Ramaswamy has suggested cutting funding for programs with lapsed authorizations, which he said amount to more than $500 billion a year. And GOP lawmakers have expressed a desire to claw back previously appropriated money for such things as clean-energy tax credits and unspent pandemic relief.
The leader of a new Senate DOGE caucus, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, sent a letter last week to Musk and Ramaswamy offering up 22 ideas for cutting spending, including by giving up vacant federal office space.
They share a desire to force government employees back to the office and relocate agency buildings out of the D.C. area, which they expect would result in workforce attrition and a smaller, cheaper federal footprint. Ernst released a 60-page report on Thursday ahead of the DOGE meetings, entitled “Out of office: Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings.”
The latter was a reference to a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who posted a picture of himself soaking in the tab on social media. “My office for the next hour,” the caption read.
House GOP leaders also created a new subcommittee, led by Georgia firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, to help the DOGE group hunt for cost savings.
But lawmakers said the meetings Thursday served mostly as an introductory session, the first of many meetings to come as the DOGE initiative gains steam next year when Republicans will control both chambers, including the House by the narrowest of margins.
“This is a brainstorming session…..as we’re laying the groundwork for a new year and a new Congress,” Johnson said.
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said the meeting he attended was light on specifics, as Musk and Ramaswamy fielded ideas from lawmakers after brief opening remarks.
“No real headway, no real idea as to what the details are going to look like — of course, it’s early,” Womack said. “I embrace the idea.”
For their part, Democrats are watching the proceedings with a mix of trepidation and amusement, noting DOGE does not have any actual statutory authority to implement the various recommendations.
“I have no idea what this commission is,” Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., said Thursday. “Nothing is real until it’s real, I’ve seen a billion commissions. Is this going to just be like a TV show? It may just be a TV show, I’m not obligated to pay attention to a TV show.”
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