U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies and billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy told the Congress on Dec. 5 that they’ll reduce “government waste” by $2 trillion dollars in Trump 2.0 via the newly coined Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory board.
In one of the several “closed-door” meetings with Republican congresspeople and senators intended to discuss “major reform” and “the principle of limited government,” the federal savings were proposed to be made at the cost of federal workers’ ability to work remotely.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a staunch advocate for DOGE and chair of last week’s Senate DOGE caucus meeting, released a 60-page report criticizing the widespread adoption of remote work in government jobs.
Titling it “Out of Office: Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings,” the report claims that just 6% of federal workers actually work in-person full-time. The 94% segment of remote federal workers are who Musk and Ramaswamy are targeting.
The report highlights several anecdotes and alleged social media posts about federal employees working remotely, including a Department of Veterans Affairs manager who shared a photo of himself working from a bathtub. The report featured the photo as part of its findings
“Growing up on a farm, I know what working from home really means. But in Washington, working from home apparently means having a field day,” Ernst wrote. “If bureaucrats want to be out of the office so badly, we can make that wish come true by putting them out to pasture for good.”
“If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%! Almost no one,” Musk wrote on X, referring to Ernst’s report.
If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!
Almost no one. https://t.co/4IGzbLqP3R
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2024
“Literally thousands of empty buildings, not just in America, but around the world, paid for with your tax dollars!” Musk wrote in a follow-up X post.
Musk also told lawmakers at the Capitol that the DOGE task force would be keeping a “naughty or nice” list of members who do and don’t support his federal budget-cutting efforts, according to ABC news.
What is the REMOTE Act?
The REMOTE Act (Requiring Every Employee To Show Up On Location) is legislation aimed at curbing remote work among federal employees. The act seeks to mandate federal workers to return to in-person work, citing concerns about productivity and accountability in government jobs.
In an exclusive, The Daily Mail revealed that Ernst is sponsoring the REMOTE Act, a DOGE-related bill, which will allow “software to monitor bureaucrats’ computer use and require agency reports on the adverse impacts of telework.”
In other words, the proposed software in the bill will be a tracking device that would “periodically review the network traffic generated by each such teleworking employee.”
The software will also take note of the “average number of logins” each employee makes, count their online hours, and collect any generated network traffic.
What is DOGE?
DOGE, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, is expected to collaborate with the White House Office of Management and Budget. The office will be headed by Russ Vought, who is returning to the role after serving during Trump’s first term.
After a resounding victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, Trump announced the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE. Although DOGE has the word “department” in its name, it is not an official government department. Instead, it will operate as an advisory body with a direct line to the White House.
This DOGE initiative, Trump said previously, is central to his “Save America” movement and is designed to dramatically reduce government waste, eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies, and modernize federal structures.