Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, President-elect Donald Trump's two co-executives named new CEO Department of Government Efficiencylikely to try to end work-from-home policies for 2.3 million employees in the federal workforce.
“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary shutdowns that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers don't have to pay them for the privilege of the Covid era. staying at home,” the two wrote Wednesday in an article for Wall Street Journal.
A source close to the matter he told the newspaper that ending remote work for federal employees is a possible early action the Trump administration could take shortly after the January inauguration. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy said in a post on X Earlier this month that mandating in-person work 5 days a week would make “25% of federal bureaucrats” “wanted immediately.”
Mandate 5-day work week *in person.* Watch 25% of federal bureaucrats quit immediately. pic.twitter.com/bXZ0b0IIxQ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 9, 2024
or REPORT released earlier this year by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found that federal employees eligible for telecommuting still performed about 60% of their work on-site, and about half of the federal workforce does not work remotely because roles require a person's presence, such as inspection of health care and food supply, for example.
“These figures show that the federal workforce is generally in line with field work rates across all sectors of the economy,” OMB said in a press release. However, he also clarified that some agencies are “continuing to work” to meet their presence goals in the country and that “the work is not done.”
Trump with duty Musk and Ramaswamy paved the way for his administration to “dismantle government bureaucracy, cut redundant regulations, cut wasteful spending and restructure Federal Agencies.” In the op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that they were pursuing three different types of reductions: regulatory, administrative and spending.
Related: Do you want to work for DOGE? Elon Musk is looking for 'super high IQ' hires – but there's a catch
DOGE mobile application for taxes
Another key area that DOGE can address is taxes. According to a report from Washington PostMusk and Ramaswamy have talked about reforming the tax system so that Americans can file their taxes for free through a mobile app.
DOGE posted on X that Americans spend 6.5 billion hours on their taxes each year.
“This needs to be simplified,” the agency has written last week.
Musk and Ramaswamy are gathering a team of “super high IQ workers” willing to work over 80 hours a week to meet DOGE's goals. They have a hard deadline of July 4, 2026 to reach their targets.
In 1955, there were less than 1.5 million words in the US Tax Code.
Today there are more than 16 million words.
Because of this complexity, Americans collectively spend 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing their taxes each year.
This should be simplified. pic.twitter.com/2CxJMt1Rcr
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 17, 2024