One idea is to move federal agencies out of Washington, D.C.
A bombshell report from Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) found that the amount of federal employees working fully in-person is near-zero despite the government spending billions annually to ensure buildings remain suitable for occupancy.
Thursday morning, the Senate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) caucus held a meeting where Ernst presented a report on widespread remote work among federal employees, according to a source familiar. Multiple Republican senators and Ramaswamy were seen at the Senate DOGE meeting.
The report, obtained by National Review, details how 90 percent of federal employees telework while a paltry 6 percent work in-person full time. Almost a third of federal employees work fully remote and the average occupancy of major agency headquarters in Washington is 12 percent. Despite the low occupancy, the government spends over $8 billion annually on maintaining and leasing the buildings, and another $7.7 billion on energy to keep them running afloat.
To remedy the situation, Ernst’s report recommends moving agencies out of D.C. and better tracking employees’ performance and workplace of choice to determine whether they should be allowed to telework. The report also proposes ending unnecessary leases and auctioning off unused office spaces.
Other Republicans senators told National Review they are fully behind the idea of moving government agencies out of Washington, D.C. and dispersing them across the country.
“So it’s both a cost savings and increased in efficiency and better customer service,” said Senator John Hoeven (R., N.D.).
“We think of Vivek and Elon as incredible thinkers and they are,” he added. “But some of this common sense stuff I think has real merit and I think that’s actually capturing the common imagination.”
Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) spoke with similar excitement about the possibility of reducing the amount of bureaucrats in Washington.
“It would be a fabulous idea. Absolutely. Let’s shrink the size of this place,” Johnson told National Review. Johnson also said he would support increased tracking of government employees to better measure productivity.
Republican lawmakers heaped praise on businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy after meeting with them on Thursday to discuss their plan to make the U.S. government more efficient by cutting wasteful spending and excess regulations.
Musk and Ramaswamy met with House and Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday to begin exploring areas for the incoming Trump administration’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency to focus on.
President-elect Donald Trump put Musk and Ramaswamy in charge of the effort, which will likely take the form of a presidential advisory commission, to identify areas where government agencies are spending unnecessarily and imposing unnecessary regulations.
Musk met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) before attending a closed-door session with Republican lawmakers alongside Ramaswamy later in the day.
“Excellent discussion about solving the national debt crisis,” Musk said on X of his meeting with Thune.
The subsequent meeting featured number of House and Senate GOP lawmakers, some of whom spoke very highly about Musk and Ramaswamy’s receptiveness to the ideas congressional Republicans put forward.
“What really stood out to me is how collaborative their tone was,” Representative Dusty Johnson (R., S.D.) told reporters.
“Elon and Vivek are not telling anybody how it’s going to be. They said, ‘we know you all have been working on these efficiency efforts, some of you for decades. So we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, what we need to do is integrate your good ideas into our plans.'” Johnson added.
Musk and Ramaswamy have set an ambitious goal of slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget but have not settled on a specific timetable. Lowering the national debt, cutting spending, reducing regulations, identifying government waste, and reforming the federal bureaucracy are all possible targets of their effort to improve government efficiency.
“What is exciting to me in that room is not that Elon and Vivek want to take this job away from congress, or that congress is trying to give it to them, but that there is a real sense of partnership, that congress has got to step up and do their part,” Johnson added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said the meeting was “very productive” and predicted much more information would come out in the coming days.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R., La.) told reporters that some government-efficiency initiatives could be featured in future budget reconciliation packages or executive orders. Those strategies would enable DOGE’s recommendations to be enacted without having to go through the 60-vote Senate threshold for overcoming the filibuster.
“There will be some of the savings that come and are identified through the DOGE that we can put in budget reconciliation,” Scalise said. “Some can be done through executive orders, some can be done through legislation. It’s much more powerful to put those changes in law because then it lasts beyond any one presidency.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) told reporters Musk and Ramaswamy floated the idea of putting together “naughty” and “nice” lists of Republican elected officials depending on their level of support for DOGE’s ideas. Greene, who is set to chair a DOGE congressional subcommittee, also said Musk and Ramaswamy talked about increasing public awareness of the U.S. national debt.
Musk, the world’s richest man, poured at least $120 million into helping Trump win the election, and Ramaswamy became a top Trump surrogate after dropping out of the GOP presidential primary following a poor showing in Iowa. As Musk became more visible on the campaign trail, Trump floated the idea of allowing him to oversee an entity devoted to reforming the federal government.
Republican Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) is a particularly strong advocate for reducing the power and scope of the federal government. Paul told reporters Thursday he has spoken to Ramaswamy and sent DOGE over 2,000 pages of suggestions for reducing the budget.
“I’m all in favor of [DOGE]. I’ve talked to Vivek Ramaswamy several times about it. We’ve shared with him 2,000 pages of waste and abuse that could be trimmed from government and we’re going to continue to work with him.”
Republicans are not alone in their enthusiasm for the possibility of DOGE leading the way on lasting government reform. Some Democrats have voiced their openness to working with DOGE if given the opportunity to contribute.
“I’d be delighted to be a part of anything of making things more efficient or cheaper,” Fetterman said, while praising Musk’s ingenuity. “That’s not really controversial.”
“Whatever we can agree on it I’d like to be a part of,” Fetterman continued. “I’m cheering for America and if we’re on the same team, and I believe that we are, and hopefully something positive will come out of it.”
Representatives Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.) have similarly made known their interest in working with DOGE on a bipartisan basis.
“I’m ready to work with @doge, @elonmusk + @VivekGRamaswamy to slash waste. I have a track record of doing so,” Khanna said on X.
Representative Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.) claimed the afternoon meeting was closed to Democrats, and stated his belief that many in his party want to work with DOGE on bipartisan solutions.
“I would have liked to attend the meeting and explore whether there are any opportunities to work across party lines to promote cost savings and efficiencies,” Suozzi said on X. “Many of us on this side of the aisle share both the goal of making government more efficient, and actually have experience doing it.”
Progressives such as Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) have also said they believe Musk and Ramaswamy should take a look at tweaking the defense budget after the Pentagon failed it seventh consecutive audit.