As co-chiefs of the Department of Government EfficiencyVivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk would make work from the office five days a week mandatory for federal workers and that would result in a wave of voluntary terminations, they wrote in a joint piece for Wall Street Journal. “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome,” the two wrote. “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”
‘We are entrepreneurs, not politicians’
Vivek and Elon wrote that they are entrepreneurs and not politicians and hence will not work as government officials and won’t cut ribbons. “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs,” they wrote.
“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” they wrote.
Elon Musk has promised to eliminate $2 trillion from the annual United States budget and has said that the government needs only 99 agencies, not more than 400.
“Employees whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote, adding that the efficiency department would “help support their transition into the private sector.”
“The president can use existing laws to give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit,” they wrote.
Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene will chair a newly created US House subcommittee dedicated to improving government efficiency. “I won’t rest until we’ve rooted out every penny of waste and abuse,” Marjorie Greene posted.
The DOGE has a mandate to wrap up their work by July 4, 2026.
Top 5 things DOGE will do
- DOGE is assembling a lean team of small-government crusaders working for three kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.
- They will take action based on existing legislation rather than passing new laws.
- They will make a list of regulations to Trump they believe are unnecessary and Trump would use his executive power to pause those.
- They would make work from office mandatory for government workers five days a week which would get rid of a lot of employees.
- They will shift some departments outside Washington.
