Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-leaders of the new Department of Government Efficiency, have proposed requiring federal employees to work from the office five days a week as part of their efforts to overhaul the civil service. In an opinion column published in The Wall Street Journal, they argued that taxpayers should not pay federal employees for staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested that this could lead to a wave of voluntary terminations.
The proposal is part of the department’s broader aim to reduce government regulations and cut down the number of agencies. Musk has promised to eliminate $2 trillion from the annual US budget, while Ramaswamy has stated that he wants to achieve a 25% reduction in the federal bureaucracy. To achieve this goal, the efficiency department would identify the minimum number of employees needed to perform core functions, with the number of workers cut proportionate to the number of regulations scrapped.
This plan is aligned with Trump’s promise to reinstitute an executive order that would empower his administration to convert tens of thousands of civil servants to at-will employees. The Department of Government Efficiency plans to support their transition into the private sector, offering incentives for early retirement and voluntary severance payments.
The proposal has been met with interest from those who want to reduce government bureaucracy and increase efficiency. However, critics argue that such a drastic measure could be detrimental to federal employees and the country’s needs.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/politics/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-rto.html