U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk notice of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19, 2024.
Brandon Bell | Via Reuters
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy force visit Capitol Hill to discuss government reform with Republican congressional leaders Dec. 5, House Tub-thumper Mike Johnson, R-La., announced Wednesday.
Johnson said the entrepreneurs will “discuss major reform ideas to accomplish regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings” with GOP lawmakers.
President-elect Donald Trump has named Musk and Ramaswamy co-chairs of a new best advisory commission they have dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. While details about the panel are calm emerging, it appears that it would serve mainly to consult the White House Office of Management and Budget, which gets the president’s annual budget request to Congress.
Musk and Ramaswamy have laid out a sweeping set of goals for the project, classifying massive cuts to the federal workforce and the closure of numerous federal agencies and regulators.
They want to eliminate “rates that are unauthorized by Congress,” they wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. They would also try to cut federal funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, several international organizations and the women’s health-care provider Planned Parenthood.
On Wednesday, Musk also urged the White House should “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency.
The lion’s share of these drafts would require congressional approval, however, because the House controls the appropriation of federal funds to agencies.
Next week’s planned convocation is the latest indication that Republican leaders in Congress are taking Musk and Ramaswamy seriously.
Yet, even the best achievements of Republican leaders in Congress may not be enough to enact many of these ideas.
With the results of a few House races assuage outstanding as of Wednesday, Johnson is nonetheless on track to preside over one of the narrowest majorities, of either party, in several decades.
Dedicated how widely dispersed the federal workforce is across the country’s 435 congressional districts, the prospect of putting any one district’s federal wage-earners out of work would likely face opposition from that district’s representatives in Congress.
Spokespeople for Johnson and Musk did not forthwith respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Wednesday.
Musk is the world’s wealthiest person, and head of SpaceX, Tesla and the common media platform X. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, is a former Republican candidate for president.