- DOGE is asserting itself in DC, with Elon Musk reportedly set to work minutes from the White House.
- Tech leaders and normal Americans are involved, and staffers will be embedded in federal agencies.
- Lawmakers told BI they hope to suggest “low-hanging fruit” to DOGE to cut in the first quarter.
There’s another inauguration happening on Monday in DC.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy aren’t getting formally sworn in, but it’s nonetheless the launch of their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the new commission that aims to slash federal spending and cut regulations.
Though many questions remain about how exactly DOGE will function, it is poised to start interfacing with federal agencies and lawmakers to suggest budgetary and regulatory reforms.
Their recommendations are likely to roll in fast. As Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida, the co-chair of the House’s DOGE caucus, told Business Insider, “The iron is not just hot, but it’s molten.”
Musk and Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of DOGE, have recently scaled back their goal of cutting $2 trillion from federal spending by the time the commission disbands, no later than July 4, 2026. Still, the two have floated a slate of reforms, from deleting agencies to firing federal employees.
DOGE won’t be a formal, Congressionally authorized department. Rather, it will operate as an advisory group outside the government. It won’t be able to make spending cuts — that’s Congress’ job — but Musk and Ramaswamy have said they plan to suggest changes to Trump, whom they said can use executive actions to start implementing some reforms. Law experts have told BI that the legal logic remains dubious.
“DOGE will supercharge the US economy by cutting wasteful spending and eliminating anti-growth regulations,” James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria and an associate of Ramaswamy’s who is providing outside advice to the counsel, told BI.
Representatives for Musk, Ramaswamy, and Trump did not respond to BI’s request for comment.
Here’s how they plan to do it, starting on day one.
Staffers, including Musk, will reportedly work close to the White House
DOGE staffers will be embedded in the political center of DC, with Musk reportedly to inhabit an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, per the New York Times.
The building is next to the West Wing and houses various agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget. In an opinion piece outlining their plans for DOGE, Musk and Ramaswamy said they plan to work closely with the OMB as it drafts President Trump’s budget.
A source familiar with DOGE’s planning told BI that Musk and Ramaswamy will each run separate teams that will work in tandem. Musk will focus on broad spending and Ramaswamy on deregulation, according to the source. Politico reported similar news, with a source telling the outlet that other staffers will implement the two leaders’ suggestions.
However, Ramaswamy’s future at DOGE is uncertain as the commission officially gets off the ground, with multiple outlets reporting that he intends to run for governor of Ohio in 2026. Should Ramaswamy run, he would need to begin campaigning long before DOGE’s self-imposed end date in July of that year.
DOGE will deploy staff to most federal agencies
The source confirmed to BI that the commission will deploy two staffers to most federal agencies where they have relevant experience, news that the Times reported earlier. Those who aren’t embedded in agencies plan to work out of the US Digital Service, the outlet said — again, minutes from the White House.
Vice President Al Gore led a government reform initiative from 1993 to 2001, and John Koskinen served as the deputy director for management at OMB during some of the efforts. He fielded many of the group’s recommendations and said the best way to find waste at agencies is to talk with employees.
“The people who live with the system and live with it every day are going to be the best people to make suggestions as well as identify the problems,” he told BI.
Koskinen said that DOGE’s reported efforts to embed at agencies could be an effective method of determining where to cut.
Still, turning recommendations into action will be difficult, especially before all federal agency positions are filled, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute who helped lead Gore’s efforts, said.
She told BI that her team made around 400 recommendations in its first eight months, but it took years for any of them to be implemented.
Silicon Valley leaders and others are already getting to work
Trump has already announced two official hires at DOGE: Republican lawyer William McGinley as counsel and former administration official Katie Miller in an unspecified role.
Beyond the formal announcements, Musk and Ramaswamy have reportedly tapped a wide range of Silicon Valley and tech leaders to help guide the commission, with the Times reporting that venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Boring Company president Steve Davis are among those involved. They join a slate of other big names in tech coming to power in Washington on Monday.
It’s not just titans of the private sector that will fill the DOGE offices.
DOGE said it was beginning to hire this month for full-time salaried engineering, HR, IT, and finance roles. Musk had previously said that DOGE employees would not be compensated and must be able to work more than 80 hours per week. It remains unclear which workers will be compensated.
DOGE workers will likely be required in the office
DOGE had hired 50 people by early January who were working out of SpaceX’s DC office, per the Washington Post. SpaceX was founded by Musk.
Musk and Ramaswamy have both been critical of federal agencies that don’t use much of their office space in DC and have floated return-to-office mandates for federal workers — so it seems likely that DOGE employees will need to work in person. A source confirmed to BI that nearly all employees will be required to work in person.
Employees’ — including Musk and Ramaswamy’s — specific employment status remains unclear. They could be special government employees who are allowed to work for the federal government for up to 130 days a year. They can be paid or unpaid and are considered temporary workers.
Compared to typical federal workers, special government employees are subject to less strict conflict of interest rules. Some of Musk’s companies are under investigation from federal agencies and have government contracts.
Lawmakers aim to start working with DOGE leaders immediately
In early December, Musk and Ramaswamy visited Capitol Hill to meet with members of the House and Senate’s DOGE caucuses, as well as a larger group of Republicans. There’s some Democratic bipartisan interest in working with the DOGE leaders.
Reps. Bean and Blake Moore of Utah, the co-chairs of the House’s DOGE caucus, told BI less than a week before inauguration day that they aim to provide the commission with suggestions for potential changes within the first quarter of the year.
“We’re chatting and we’re hanging out,” Bean said of his communication with Musk and Ramaswamy. He told BI that he wants to advise DOGE on “low-hanging fruit” to target in the first-quarter report.
He told BI that he imagined holding a “DOGE Day” where lawmakers drop around a dozen bills.
Moore said that he expects some early executive orders from Trump, and that while those won’t necessarily come straight from DOGE’s recommendations, the commission “can be part of it.”
Rep. Ro Khanna of California is among the Democrats interested in DOGE and was once in touch with the leaders. Yet Khanna told BI that he hasn’t been in touch with Musk and Ramaswamy for more than a month.
“Waiting to see,” he said when asked about DOGE’s potential first steps, indicating how secretive the commission’s plans have been. “Really don’t have any details.”
Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The American Enterprise Institute who has written about DOGE, said it’s still unclear how exactly the commission will communicate with Congress, which controls spending cuts.
“The sort of wild card — the ‘we don’t know’ part of this — is the intersection between DOGE and legislation and the DOGE caucuses: where they will take the DOGE recommendations, if there are any, in terms of legislation to achieve savings in federal programs, which is where the real money resides,” he said.
DOGE flexed its power even before inauguration day, though. Musk and Ramaswamy came out against and eventually tanked a Congressional spending bill in December, bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown.
Now that the Trump administration and DOGE are officially taking the reins in Washington, the scope of the commission’s influence will likely crystalize, recommendation by recommendation.
Have you applied to work at DOGE? Share your experience and thoughts with this reporter at atecotzky@insider.com.
