Key Senator looks to fast track Musk's DOGE operation

By 
 December 14, 2024

A member of the U.S. Senate is looking to fast track Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Fox Business reports that U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is introducing legislation to move a large number of federal workers out of Washington, D.C.

Ernst is the leader of the newly formed Senate DOGE Caucus, which will be working hand-in-hand with Musk and his DOGE team. The House of Representatives has its own group that will work with Musk.

The big question, though, is exactly how much support there is in Congress for this action.

Ernst is a go

We have all heard Trump and Republicans talk about draining "the swamp," the massive body of unelected federal government officials who have a lot of power in D.C. The question, though, is how exactly to go about this task.

Some have suggested that one solution is to simply relocate many of these federal employees, the idea being that, if you remove them from D.C., they will likely just call it quits.

Ernst is looking to put this idea into practice. Per Fox:

The legislation, dubbed the "Returning SBA to 5 Main Street Act," would move nearly a third or more of the employees at the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Washington, D.C., headquarters (HQ), to duty stations outside the D.C. metro area.

The outlet adds:

The bill reduces SBA’s HQ office space and "100 percent telework" ability, by moving at least 30 percent of HQ employees into various regions across America and reducing HQ office space by an equal amount. It comes after the SBA stated that even if 100% of SBA employees came in-person to the Washington, D.C., HQ, only 67 percent of SBA’s HQ capacity would be used.

At the time of this writing, support for this bill is unclear.

Background

Reducing the D.C. bureaucracy would certainly be one way that the government can be made more efficient, which is the overarching goal of DOGE.

Trump has selected Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the operation

He has explained:

Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my adminstraiton to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies - Essential to the "Save America" Movement.

Musk and Ramaswamy have already been meeting with members of Congress to see what might be possible.

It does appear, after these initial talks, as though DOGE could receive some bipartisan support, but, at the moment, all we have is talk - not actions.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson