Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, details his meeting with President-elect Trump and Elon Musk to create a DOGE office in Congress and propose cutting spending on vacant buildings, science lab experiments and other government contracts.
Republican His. Joni Ernst (Iowa) is pledging to work with the incoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reverse the Biden administration’s recent deal that allows thousands of federal employees to continue working from home for another five years.
“On exit, Biden admin blocks telecommuting for 42,000 @SocialSecurity bureaucrats until AFTER President Trump leaves office! Unacceptable!” Ernst wrote on X. “I will work with @elonmusk @VivekGRamaswamy and @DOGE to fix this ASAP and get the bureaucrats back to work.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 10, 2024. in Washington, DC. Ernst presides over a meeting in the DOGE Senate. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
The nation’s largest federal labor union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), confirmed FOX Business Tuesday that it has secured an agreement that “includes the current level of telecommuting in our National Agreement until October 25, 2029.”
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Bloomberg first reported an agreement to extend hybrid work for about 42,000 Social Security Administration (SSA) employees that was signed President Biden former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley.
Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley testifies before the Senate Budget Committee at the U.S. Capitol on September 11, 2024. in Washington, DC. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images/Getty Images)
This move was made by DOGE, which is headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, says he wants to end telecommuting and bring federal employees back to the office during President-elect Trump’s second term.
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DOGE is the brainchild of Musk, and the goal of the initiative is to eliminate government waste and reduce federal spending. Ramaswamy said the DOGE will remove entire federal agencies, and the commission’s work is expected to be completed by July 4, 2026.
Elon Musk (left) Vivek Ramaswamy (right) (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images and Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
DOGE plans to cut federal workforce as part of imeasures to reduce costs. One way to cut staff is to require government employees to come into the office, with the theory that many workers will quit if they are no longer allowed to continue working from home.
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Congressional Republicans and some Democrats have pledged to work with DOGE to cut government spending.
Ernst is the head of the DOGE caucus in the Senate and has already laid out some of them $1 trillion in cuts the agency can make from the federal budget.
Alexa Angelus of FOX Business contributed to this report.
