Lawmakers who back the incoming DOGE panel are looking to rein in telework and relocate federal workers, while IT modernization is also viewed as “low hanging fruit” for the future Trump administration’s efficiency efforts.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasawmy, leaders of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, hit Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with lawmakers about their ambitious and sweeping ideas to cut government spending.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), head of the newly formed Senate DOGE Caucus, released a new telework report on Thursday to coincide with Musk and Ramaswamy’s visit to the Hill.
The report recommends tying telework eligibility to performance and more closely monitoring where employees are logging into work. And it calls for relocating federal employees away from Washington, DC, and selling off underutilized office buildings.
In a release, Ernst’s office called the report a “roadmap for fixing the broken federal workforce” for DOGE and Congress.
Separately, Sen. Marsha Blackburn posted on X that she would introduce legislation called the “DOGE Act.”
“My DOGE Act will freeze federal hiring, begin the process to relocate agencies out of the D.C. swamp, and establish a merit-based salary system for the federal workforce,” Blackburn wrote.
Meanwhile, Musk and Ramaswamy have said they plan to require federal employees to return to the office five days a week. The duo has said forcing federal employees to return to the office would lead to a “welcome” wave of voluntary terminations.
In the House, the Oversight and Accountability Committee will set up a DOGE subcommittee to advance the panel’s recommendations.
The congressional DOGE caucus is largely made up of Republicans, but Democrats may join the effort. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fl.) said he is joining the caucus, while Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.) wrote on X that he’s “ready to work with” DOGE, Musk and Ramaswamy.
Moskowitz told NPR this week he will likely disagree with many of Musk and Ramaswamy’s ideas, but added that it’s important to engage in “comfortable and uncomfortable conversations.”
“If there are people with legitimate suggestions on how we can improve government efficiency, bring technology to government, or figure out where there’s waste and fraud to save taxpayer dollars, we should do that,” Moskowitz said. “It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”
IT modernization
While they seek to gain the buy-in of lawmakers, Ramaswamy also said he and Musk are focused on what DOGE can accomplish solely through executive action.
“Focus number one is what can be done through existing executive authority to reduce the waste, the fraud, the abuse, the error, regulatory overreach,” Ramaswamy said during an event hosted by the Aspen Institute on Wednesday. “That’s the first wave. And then I hope that those wins lay the foundation for Congress to say, ‘Hey, you know what? The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west.’”
Ramaswamy also highlighted how federal technology improvements will be “necessary” to accomplish some of DOGE’s efficiency goals.
“You think about the data silos to compare whether or not you have excess spending or waste, fraud, abuse by comparing different databases — often you can’t do that because that information is siloed in different houses, in different parts of the federal bureaucracy that don’t talk to each other, that don’t even operate on the same kind of code, that don’t operate even according some of the same enterprise systems,” Ramaswamy said.
Both Republican and Democrat administrations have long sought, with varying degrees of success, to modernize IT systems across the federal government. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has also been pushing to address improper payments and fraud in recent years. Officials often cite data siloes as a major challenge.
While artificial intelligence is an increasing focus for agencies and lawmakers, Ramaswamy also said he’s “resisting the AI illusion.” Instead, he said DOGE can focus on “a lot lower hanging fruit,” such as the continued use of 40-year-old COBOL code at some agencies.
“I do think that a basic modernization of the software, of the technology, of the rails on which the federal government’s information actually flows, that’s low hanging fruit that I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, it’s going to strictly improve the effectiveness with which the taxpayer dollar is actually spent,” Ramaswamy said.
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