Some members of the new Congressional DOGE caucus are eyeing Republicans to crack down on work-from-home policies in federal agencies when they take control in Washington, D.C., next year.
The group’s name, an acronym for “Achieving Superior Government Efficiency,” is a new advisory committee commissioned by President-elect Trump and led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Department of Government Efficiency (for short). DOGE).
The caucus held its first meeting on Tuesday, and lawmakers told Fox News Digital that the meeting was largely “institutional.”
Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), co-chair of the DOGE caucus, told Fox News Digital that the room was packed with interested lawmakers.
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President Trump announced on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). (Getty Images)
“We had 29 people sign up, so we met in a small conference room, but it was full. Over 60 members showed up,” Bean said.
Among them are Rep. Stephen Horsford, D-Nevada, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Oregon, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida), the first Democrat to join the DOGE caucus. Democratic members of Congress were included.
A document distributed to attendees and shared with Fox News Digital identifies what DOGE goals would be a “value increase,” “quick-fix,” “low priority,” and “low-hanging fruit.” He encouraged MPs to consider other ways to organize and engage. Prioritize your initiatives.
Asked what the “low-hanging fruit” would be for the committee, Bean said: “Getting people back to work.”
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“I have a problem,” Bean said. ”[Federal workers] Do a lot of work at home. Whether working from home is productive is debatable. But if they’re working from home, we have 6 to 15 percent occupancy in billions of square feet of commercial buildings that we spend billions of dollars on upkeep, etc. It will be. Even if people aren’t using the office, do they still need that much space?”
Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), who also attended the meeting, echoed similar sentiments.
Rep. Aaron Bean, Republican of Florida, co-founded the corresponding caucus in the House of Representatives ((Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))
“When you remove security, 1 percent of federal employees will be coming to work on a regular basis, and we’re paying for 100 percent of the office space for all of them,” Vann said. Dain said. “There are a lot of low hanging fruit, and I hope we can identify what they are.”
Bean also dismissed critics of Musk and Ramamswamy’s push for DOGE, who accuse it of being a way for Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits.
“That was not the intention,” Bean stressed. “That’s not what I mean [to be] reduce health and wellness benefits; [veterans] Or Social Security. But unless you make cuts elsewhere, these benefits have a limited shelf life. So the goal is not to cut those things, but to protect them. ”
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Other lawmakers in attendance said they were enthusiastic about the group’s cost-cutting and efficiency goals.
“It was a good introductory meeting for the caucus, where we all discussed our expectations and how we would contribute to taking ideas and moving them into bill form and working through the regular committee process to do so.” It was kind of a challenge to see if we could do it,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (RN.Y.).
“I got a lot of ideas from constituents as well…I think this is a really great grassroots effort.”
Fox News Digital previewed the DOGE caucus’ new logo and email hotline for Americans to send suggestions about government efficiency. (Fox News Digital)
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“There are 1.5 billion ideas,” said House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Blake Moore (R-Utah), who co-chairs the DOGE caucus with Beane and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). We need to make it actually doable.” For Vivek and Elon. ”
Mr. Bean and Mr. Moore both suggested that the next step for the caucus is to divide into working groups that target different aspects of DOGE’s mission.
Bean said the next caucus meeting is scheduled for January.
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for FOX News Digital, where she leads coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines can be found on the Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow @liz_elkind on Twitter and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com.
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