DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy indicated Monday that federal employees will be required to return to the office full time, and that the push has left union bureaucrats “in tears.”
President-elect Donald Trump appointed Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies,” through the newly created DOGE. Now, Ramaswamy is targeting government telework, suggesting staffers will be required to be in-office for the entire work week.
“I’m hearing via allies that federal government unions are scrambling to update their collective bargaining agreements to avoid getting fired,” Ramaswamy wrote on X Monday. “The prospect of being asked to return to the office 5 days per week like most working Americans apparently has them ‘in tears.’”
Of the 24 federal agencies, 17 used an estimated average of 25% or less of their headquarters buildings’ capacity, according to a July 2023 report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office that looked at a three-week sample period across January, February and March of 2023. Even the best-performing agency did not use 50% of its office space.
Federal unions have pushed to secure telework covenants, with a May EPA labor agreement extending protections, “for remote work, telework and flexible work schedules.”
Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told NBC last Tuesday that she had requested a meeting with Trump in part to discuss the need for federal employees to return to the office.
“How we can make sure that our federal workforce is back to work is one big thing,” Bowser told the outlet, adding to the Washington Post that, “we need partners that help return the vibrancy of downtown Washington and what I like to call—my staff doesn’t like it when I say this—the majesty of the federal government.”
Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Owen Klinsky.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
DOGE is a great idea. Pres. Trump is taking on the bull by the horns and I hope that most of us are looking forward to slimmer Federal agencies that became bloated under the different Democrat regimes. Won’t be an easy road as the Demos in these agencies make all attempts to maintain their positions. HEY DEMOs — YOU’RE FIRED!!!!
About time DOGE was created. No telling how much waste will be found. Thank you Donald Trump for creating this department! Go get em Vivek
Fire every Federal employee who is delinquent in paying their Federal taxes. Someone who cheats by not following the laws, cannot be trusted to do an honest day of work. Reduce the Federal employees by at least one third. Use the savings to pay down the US debt.
And let’s not forget to let go of the 30,000 armed IRS employees Biden hired – we don’t need them either.
Fire ALL Bureaucrats. No severance pay or benefits for them.
This should have been done long ago.Then start the process to clean the entire system of the freeloaders.
Yep, the swamp got really big during the last 4 years but Trump and his helpers will clear it out fast. We are in good hands. Thank you God.
Start with those “nonessential jobs” I keep hearing about everytime there’s a government shutdown.
All government employees don’t make anything. All they do is take taxpayers hard earned money.
There should have never been any unions for bureaucrats.
Time for them to find real jobs that contribute to our national economy.
Obviously we need a strong and effective military and intelligence.
Sounds as if they have it made in the shade and I am sure if every 2nd one were let go work still would get done nice and easy. We pay for their “working from home”
This is long overdue! There are so many leaches stealing from the American public it is ridiculous. Time to clean house & fire 50% of unelected officials & charge the elected ones with treason. MAGA BABY!! NCSWIC!!
gee you mean they are going to have to actually do some work for their paycheck?
Poor federal employees! They might have to SHOW UP and quit featherbedding. Along with AFT and NEA, their union is about the worst for screwing the taxpayers! Hope DOGE moves many agencies out of DC which should cull some of these deadbeats!
Unions came into Fed gov’t in 1960s, and was not needed at all. Those pushing for union were often found lounging in hallway chatting with another lounger. I would see the same often when delivering documents to another office – and this was in the Pentagon. Those calling for unions took bathroom breaks often. To me, they wanted more pay and benefits without putting out any more effort… something-for-nothing crowd.
And look at the disfunction of that government now.
Most taxpayers are fed up with the dole, the huge number of “get ya!” people who care not a wit about us.
Pork must go as we can no longer afford the bloat, the lazy, the entitled (NOT!), and others whose presence is not wanted.
There are hard working people in agencies and separation to different parts of the country makes sense, Breaking up the cluster improves, but it requires rules, enforcement, and no excuses. Entitlement as it is government is no longer on the list.
I’m all for it!
Get the Deep State out of office.
Cant wait to submit ideas once website up
I was a local sanitary district worker in the real estate department. I can tell you that at the local level we were hard working people who believed in serving the people in our district. Treated them all equally and were genuinely interested in solving any problems they had. The U.S. government employees don’t have the same personal contact we had and therefore have no feeling of serving the general public. It is just a job that they do to get paid for doing nothing that matters and doesn’t give them any job satisfaction. Once their jobs are eliminated I have no idea where they will find a new job because their job experience doesn’t qualify them for anything in the current job market! I would say that most of them will go some kind of welfare.
Return or look for a new job.
What about congress and there golden parachute forever no matter how long they served?
OK, lets assume this new DOGE agency actually curbs some current spending and streamlines existing government while slashing current government employees. If wildly “successful” the increase in our deficit spending will lessen. Say DOGE is wildly successful and all spending in excess of incoming revenue is curtailed, what will we do about the unbelievable hole we are currently in? Of course the chance of DOGE being truly successful is very questionable as if you listen to anyone in federal governance, from the past administration or the incoming Trump Administration what is one uniting theme? VAST increases in military spending. That means even larger outflows than the current almost 900 BILLION annual budget for our “defense” agency (that in reality has never been anything other than offense agencies). Its like taking off your socks before getting weighed. Will there be a difference? Yep a TINY difference but in the end you are still 5’5″ and weigh 400lbs. Mortal difficulties remain and the nation will continue to decline and sooner than we can conceive, it will collapse. The end of an empire, rather ANOTHER end of an empire. Get a fork handy because we are DONEj
I am glad to see DOGE and look forward to seeing it work to make government accountable and more efficient. Cut waste, lower the deficient from an over inflated government work force and unaccounted for money
Just one agency (pentagon )can’t tell us where all the money is or where it is going.
It is no secret the federal government is out of control.
Trump has to show a reduction in the federal budget with NO deficit. Americans are tired of ballooning federal debt. Trump has to crack down on, if not an outright ban, on all grants that go to outside vendors. Especially to grants that go to organizations that are in direct conflict with the will of the American citizens, such as organizations that operate in central America to promote and subsidize illegal immigration. All grants that fund bio research that end up developing another Gates fiasco, such as EcoHealth Alliance. The WHO, United Nations, and WEF should get the minimum amount of cash from us that keeps us in the room when they are discussing how to destroy our freedoms just so we can have a vote and keep our ears to the enemy’s plans.
They better find another job now rather than be out later!
How does Swamy know very much about how the Fed Govt. operates until he officially has the authority to do so after Jan. 2025? This seems to be way early to be throwing out flaming arrows at this date. And Musk & Trump seem to be using X and TruthSocial for their news media, and does not seem very appropriate as they own that media. Cannot call them FAKE NEWS as they are not really the news media that I grew up with & that is TV and newspapers.
Does Ramaswamy have any political experience? My worry is that Musk & Swammy will go in the wrong direction & think the US Government can be run like a business. And another worry is to watch out if they plan to cut fed costs by passing them on to State costs!!!!!!!!