The work-from-home policy came under fire from X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as he and Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy took plans to cut government waste to the floor of Congress on Thursday.
Business leaders selected by President-elect Donald Trump to lead an outside advisory board called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attended several closed-door meetings with GOP senators and House members to sell plans to cut $2 trillion. the federal budget of what they called waste.
“I think we need to make sure we’re spending the public’s money well,” Musk told reporters between meetings.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the newly announced co-chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives with his son X Æ A-Xii Musk on Capitol Hill, December 5, 2024, in Washington.
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Musk posted on his social media platform X from inside the Capitol about what he and Ramaswamy say is a key issue for DOGE: the number of federal employees working from home.
Federal Office of Management and Budget released a report in August, “As of May 2024, approximately 50% of federal employees worked every day in tasks that are not eligible for telecommuting, including those who work on-site providing health care to our veterans, inspecting our food supply, and managing federal natural resources.” . “
Musk shared a new report by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate DOGE caucus, that only 6 percent of federal workers show up to work full-time. Many others work part-time from home, and about a third work from home full-time, according to the report.
“If you ignore the security guards and maintenance workers, the number of government workers who show up in person and work 40 hours a week is closer to 1%! Hardly anyone,” Musk posted in response to the report.
Ernst’s report includes several anecdotes and alleged social media posts about federal employees who worked from home, including a Department of Veterans Affairs director who posted a photo of himself working from a bathtub. Ernst’s team included the photo in their report.
The OMB report found that “employees eligible to telecommute spent approximately 60% of their regular work hours in person at agency-assigned work sites.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the newly announced chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on December 05, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson said he agreed with Musk’s position on federal workers’ work-from-home policies and made the claim, without any citations, that only 1% of federal workers were in their office.
“You’re going to see the demand … to get federal workers back to their desks. That’s just common sense,” he said at a news conference between meetings.
Musk, who brought son X to the proceedings, and Ramaswamy walked past reporters before the press conference began with Musk carrying his son on his shoulder.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, the newly announced co-chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on December 05, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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Musk has been an outspoken opponent of work-from-home policies and removed those policies from his businesses, including X. He threatened to fire X employees who did not comply with his policy, as he ordered that special requests for remote work be reviewed. before he accepted it.
Johnson praised DOGE’s goals and said Thursday’s meetings were a first for lawmakers in Washington.
The speaker dodged questions about the pushback from federal labor unions and potential cuts to social services and said he would not elaborate on proposed budget changes, but insisted the nation needed “leaner government.”
“The government is too big and does almost nothing right,” he said.
