In a press release on Wednesday, the Republican lawmakers touted the measures as a means to target federal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., coinciding with President-elect Donald Trump’s formation of the Department of Government Efficiency to be led by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
“The American people have had enough of outsized bureaucracy and wasteful government spending,” Blackburn said. “The DOGE Acts are the first step to achieving government efficiency by requiring federal employees to get back in the office, moving federal agencies into the heartland of America, cutting bloated federal spending across the board, and freezing federal hiring and salaries until we can rightsize the federal government.”
The announcement comes as GOP lawmakers look to position themselves as part of the broader “DOGE” effort, launching caucuses and vowing to coordinate with the group to cut unnecessary and partisan government spending.
DOGE plans to work in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, a powerful federal agency that Trump is swiftly seeking to staff with close allies. Trump nominated Russell Vought, who previously led the agency, as OMB director. Other picks include Mark Paoletta as general counsel and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) as deputy director.
Included in the GOP-led bills was the Federal Freeze Act, which would implement a one-year freeze on certain salary increases for federal employees and direct agency leaders to limit the number of workers who can be employed for more than three years.
Another bill, the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems, or the SHOW UP Act, would “require federal agencies to return to pre-pandemic telework levels within 30 days and would prevent federal agencies from permanently expanding telework without submitting to Congress telework plans certified by the Office of Personnel Management,” according to a fact-sheet.
Tenney said she and Blackburn “are determined to cut wasteful government spending and reduce costs for hardworking Americans,” noting that both lawmakers are “ready to collaborate with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to rein in bloated budgets, relocate federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., reform outdated bureaucracies, and ensure bureaucrats actually work for their pay.”
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Musk and Ramaswamy have said they will not be paid through DOGE and are volunteers hiring “a lean team of small-government crusaders” to cut costs.
“The DOGE Acts embody these priorities, serving as a bold first step in advancing the incoming Trump administration’s ‘Make America Efficient Again’ agenda,” Tenney said.
