President-elect Donald Trump‘s picks to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are heading to Capitol Hill on Thursday as they seek to grow bipartisan support for the initiative to cut government waste.
DOGE was offered by Trump last month with a goal of a “smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy.” The initiative has already garnered partners in Congress, but the pair of DOGE leaders will look to increase cooperation through various meetings with members. They’ll also join the inaugural meeting of the Senate DOGE caucus.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who was appointed as the chairwoman of the House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee last month, has said she is hopeful that with Trump’s return to the White House and the GOP’s impending control of both chambers of Congress, change can be achieved.
“President Trump finally has the support, the backing, and basically the muscle power that he deserved in 2017. And it’s actually bigger and better than before. And I think we have a real opportunity this time to actually do it, or at least, you know, push the ball really far down the field and try to get there, and we can’t squander it,” Greene previously told the Washington Examiner.
Some House members have already shown a desire to work with DOGE to cut government waste, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). The Florida congressman was the first Democrat to join the House DOGE caucus, and some other Democrats have shown enthusiasm in working to cut government waste as Musk and Ramaswamy seek to push forward their proposals.
Other Democrats have hopped on board as well, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) saying, “I’m ready to work with @doge, @elonmusk + @VivekGRamaswamy to slash waste,” in an X post.
Musk responded to the tweet, saying, “Much appreciated.”
On the Senate side, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is leading the upper chamber’s DOGE caucus and has already outlined 22 areas where Musk and Ramaswamy could seek cuts to the government. The Thursday meeting of the Senate DOGE caucus is reportedly set to revolve around remote work for government workers, as many federal offices in Washington, D.C., still sit empty.
Not everybody is on board, with some members specifically citing DOGE’s lack of authority.
House Appropriation Committee ranking member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told Punchbowl News, “It’s a gang of two … It’s the Congress that makes these determinations.”
The DOGE X account has outlined several areas where funds and waste in various government agencies could be cut, including a post last month highlighting the government offices that have sat vacant since the pandemic and the rise of remote work since 2020.
“Federal government agencies are using, on average, just 12% of the space in their DC headquarters. The Department of Agriculture, with space for more than 7,400 people, averaged 456 workers each day (6% occupancy). Why are American taxpayer dollars being spent to maintain empty buildings?” the account posted on X.
One member of the Senate DOGE caucus, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), told the Washington Post that the Thursday meeting with Musk and Ramaswamy will also include a discussion of “political realities” and how difficult it could be to actually get some lawmakers to agree to cuts that could affect their districts.
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“You’re going to have to fight with that rock-ribbed conservative that says, ‘don’t take those 100 jobs out of my district,’ even though every business logic would say they needed to be somewhere else,” Tillis told the outlet.
Trump has said he wants DOGE’s work to be completed no later than July 4, 2026, the 250th birthday of the country. He said in the announcement of DOGE that the completion date will serve as the “perfect gift” for the country’s semiquincentennial.
