Department of Government Efficiency

Department of Government Efficiency

Logo on X (formerly Twitter) as of November 14, 2024[citation needed]
Abbreviation	DOGE
Formation	Announced on November 12, 2024; yet to be established
Key people	Elon Musk Vivek Ramaswamy Marjorie Taylor Greene

This article is part of a series about Elon Musk
Personal Awards and honors Views Family Filmography Legal affairs Wealth Companies Zip2 X.com PayPal SpaceX Starlink Tesla, Inc. Energy criticism litigation OpenAI Neuralink The Boring Company Thud X Corp. Twitter under Elon Musk Twitter, Inc. acquisition xAI In popular culture Elon Musk (Isaacson) Elon Musk (Vance) Ludicrous Power Play "Members Only" "The Platonic Permutation" "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty" Elon Musk's Crash Course Second presidency of Trump Department of Government Efficiency Related America PAC Boring Test Tunnel Hyperloop SolarCity Tesla Roadster in space TSLAQ Twitter Files 2022 Twitter suspensions Tesla and unions
v t e

The Department of Government Efficiency^[a] (DOGE^[b]) refers to a planned United States presidential advisory commission announced by Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, in preparation for his second term as U.S. president. It will be led by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk and the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite its name, DOGE is not intended to function as a federal executive department, the creation of which would require the approval of the U.S. Congress, instead, it will serve as an advisory body aiming to streamline the U.S. federal government and reduce inefficiency.^[2]

DOGE is a backronym referencing Doge, an Internet meme.^[3]

The concept of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) emerged in a discussion between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, where Musk floated the idea of a department for streamlining government efficiency. Later, the suggestion was made by Trump of establishing such a department and for it to be headed by Musk.^[4][5]

Musk has suggested that the commission could help to cut the U.S. federal budget by up to US$2 trillion through measures such as reducing waste, abolishing redundant agencies, and downsizing the federal workforce. Ramaswamy also stated that DOGE may eliminate entire federal agencies and reduce the number of federal employees by as much as 75%.^[6][7] Musk has also proposed consolidating the number of federal agencies from more than 400 to fewer than 100.^[8]

Musk has described deregulation as the only path to the SpaceX Mars colonization program, and promised he will "get the government off people's back and out of their pocket".^[9]

Despite the name, it will not be a federal executive department, which is created through an act of Congress, and is to be an advisory body operating outside of government.^[10] According to CBS News, it may operate under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.^[11]

Vox said that the body is "unlikely to have any regulatory teeth on its own, but there's little doubt that it can have influence on the incoming administration and how it will determine its budgets".^[12]

Donald Trump said the body would help to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies". He also stated that Musk and Ramaswamy will work with the Office of Management and Budget to address what he called "massive waste and fraud" in government spending.^[13]

Plans to create a new congressional subcommittee were announced on November 21, 2024 by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.^[14] The new House Oversight Subcommittee will be called the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee.^[15] The subcommittee will be chaired by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA.^[16][17] The Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee will work closely with the DOGE to reduce governmental expenditures.^[18]

AI-generated advertisements for DOGE posted on X by Ramaswamy and Musk

In August 2024, Trump said at a campaign event that, if he were elected, he would be open to giving Musk an advisory role.^[19] In response, Musk wrote a post on X saying "I am willing to serve", along with an AI-created image of him standing in front of a lectern marked "Department of Government Efficiency".^[3]

Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, stated that, prior to the official announcement of the creation of DOGE, Elon Musk had called Federico Sturzenegger, Argentina's Minister of Deregulation and Transformation of the State, to discuss imitating his ministry's model in the United States.^[20] The idea of a DOGE has been linked to Trump's campaign promises to cut federal spending and reduce the size of government and the size of the federal fiscal deficit.^[21] Musk has suggested that the former U.S. representative and presidential candidate Ron Paul could work with DOGE.^[22][23]

On November 20, The Washington Post reported that DOGE had discussed development of a free tax filling mobile app.^[24]

Trump selected Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to serve as DOGE's leadership.

On November 12, 2024, Trump announced his intention to form a Department of Government Efficiency under the leadership of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.^[25] Trump stated that the entity's work will "conclude" no later than July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence,^[26] also coinciding with America's semiquincentennial celebrations and a proposed "Great American Fair".^[27] Trump called the proposed results of DOGE "the perfect gift to America".

On November 14, DOGE asked for CVs^{[clarification needed]} of high IQ people willing to work 80 hours a week.^[28]

On November 21, it was reported that Marjorie Taylor Greene was tapped to chair the committee.^[29]

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest American bank, has supported the idea of creating DOGE to improve government competency.^[30]

On October 28, 2024, at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, Musk stated his belief that DOGE could remove US$2 trillion from the U.S. federal budget.^[31] Musk has not specified whether these savings would be made over a single year or a longer period.^[32] Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has said that this saving is "absolutely doable" over a period of 10 years, but it would be difficult to do in a single year "without compromising some of the fundamental objectives of the government that are widely agreed upon".^[33]

Questions have been raised whether Musk and Ramaswamy's companies being contractors to the federal government causes a conflict of interest with their proposed work in DOGE.^[34][35]

The committee has been seen as potentially redundant to the Government Accountability Office.^[36]

• United States Bureau of Efficiency – United States federal government bureau from 1916 to 1933
• Brownlow Committee – 1937 commission recommending United States federal government reforms
• Grace Commission – Investigation to eliminate inefficiency in the United States federal government
• Hoover Commission – United States federal commission in 1947 advising on executive reform
• United States Senate Committee on Appropriations – Standing committee of the United States Senate
• Tea Party movement – American fiscally conservative political movement
• Keep Commission
• Project on National Security Reform
• Authorization bill § Appropriations directed to expired authorizations

• DOGE on Twitter