 Logo as of January 2025 | |||
 The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the DOGE office is located | |||
| Temporary organization overview | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Formed | January 20, 2025 | ||
| Jurisdiction | U.S. federal government | ||
| Headquarters | Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C., U.S. | ||
| Temporary organization executive |
| ||
| Parent Agency | United States DOGE Service | ||
| Website | doge | ||
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), officially the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, is a temporary organization under the United States DOGE Service, formerly known as the United States Digital Service. Despite the name, DOGE is not a federal executive department, the creation of which would require the approval of the U.S. Congress.
DOGE's initial stated purpose was to reduce wasteful spending and eliminate unnecessary regulations. However, according to the executive order that established it, its formal purpose is to "modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity".
Led by businessman Elon Musk, the organization was announced by then president-elect Donald Trump in November 2024 for his second term. Initially, Vivek Ramaswamy was to co-lead with Musk, but he left before the project began. The organization was created by executive order on January 20, 2025, and was scheduled to end on July 4, 2026. DOGE has an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and will have about 20 employees there with teams embedded in federal agencies.
History
Conception
The idea of DOGE has been linked to Trump's campaign promises to cut federal spending and reduce the size of government and the size of the federal fiscal deficit.
The concept of DOGE emerged in a discussion between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, where Musk floated the idea of a department for streamlining government efficiency. In August 2024, Trump said at a campaign event that, if he were elected, he would be open to giving Musk an advisory role. In response, Musk wrote a post on X saying "I am willing to serve", along with an AI-created image of him standing in front of a lectern marked "Department of Government Efficiency". The organization's acronym DOGE has been described as referencing dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that Musk promotes, and the DOGE website's official launch prominently featured the dogecoin logo of a Shiba Inu dog. Later, the suggestion was made by Trump of establishing such a department and for it to be headed by Musk.
Musk has suggested that the organization could help to cut the U.S. federal budget by up to US$2 trillion through measures such as reducing waste, abolishing redundant agencies, and downsizing the federal workforce. Ramaswamy also stated that DOGE may eliminate entire federal agencies and reduce the number of federal employees by as much as 75%. DOGE may attempt to do this through re-enacting Schedule F. Musk has also proposed consolidating the number of federal agencies from more than 400 to fewer than 100.
Musk has described deregulation as the only path to the SpaceX Mars colonization program, and promised he will "get the government off people's back and out of their pocket".
The organization is similar to attempts before it, including president Theodore Roosevelt's Keep Commission, president Ronald Reagan's appointment of J. Peter Grace to lead the Grace Commission, and vice president Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government.
Planning and member acquisition
On November 5, 2024, Musk suggested that former U.S. representative and two-time Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul could work with DOGE.
On November 14, on social media, Musk called for individuals who were interested in working for the organization to send CVs to DOGE's X account via DM. It was noted at the time that, because Musk's platform does not allow non-premium accounts to DM premium or verified accounts by default, only those who subscribed to X's paid premium service could submit their CVs in this way. DOGE's X account has since allowed direct messages from non-premium accounts.
On December 22, Trump announced that Katie Miller, the wife of incoming deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, would be joining DOGE.
On January 19, 2025, it was reported by CBS News that Ramaswamy was expected to step away from DOGE to instead run for the governorship of Ohio. CBS also reported there had been internal friction between Ramaswamy and Musk, with Musk's supporters reportedly "privately undercutting" Ramaswamy and encouraging him to depart from DOGE over his alleged lack of engagement with the project. On January 20, 2025, following the Second Presidential Inauguration of Trump, the White House clarified that Ramaswamy would not be serving in DOGE. On January 27, Ramaswamy said that he had resigned after a "mutual discussion" with Musk. Ramaswamy described his own focus as "a constitutional law, legislative-based approach," in contrast with Musk's "technology approach, which is the future approach."
On January 21, The New York Times reported that the Executive Order establishing DOGE would rename the United States Digital Service to "United States DOGE Service" and create "DOGE teams" embedded within federal agencies consisting of at least four special government employees that would have "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT systems" to the "maximum extent consistent with law." Officially, the group's goal is to advance the "president's DOGE agenda" by "modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity". The budget of the service was unknown, and several of the employees were expected to be unpaid volunteers.
Congressional caucus and proposed subcommittee
On November 19, 2024, representatives Aaron Bean and Pete Sessions launched the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus to support the DOGE mission.
Plans to create a new congressional subcommittee were announced on November 21 by House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY). This new subcommittee will be called the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, will be chaired by representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and will work closely with DOGE to reduce governmental expenditures. On November 22, senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) was appointed to lead the corresponding Senate DOGE Caucus.
In December 2024, Ernst proposed a bill dubbed "DRAIN THE SWAMP Act", which would require each executive agency to relocate at least 30 percent of employees working at Washington, D.C., headquarters to offices located outside of the D.C. metro area; while also restricting the ability to telework.
Bipartisan collaboration
As of December 2024, representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is the only Democrat to have joined the newly formed DOGE caucus in Congress. He has proposed reorganizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by potentially removing agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Secret Service from its jurisdiction. This proposal aims to reduce the size of the DHS.
Functions
Despite its name, DOGE is not a federal executive department, which would require an act of Congress to create. Vox said that the body is "unlikely to have any regulatory teeth on its own, but there's little doubt that it can have influence on the incoming administration and how it will determine its budgets".
Donald Trump said the body would help to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies". He also stated that DOGE will work with the Office of Management and Budget to address what he called "massive waste and fraud" in government spending.
Eliminating agencies
On November 27, 2024, Musk proposed eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
On December 12, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump team and officials from DOGE had inquired about abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). It also reported on several differing plans to combine and restructure the FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Reserve.
Lifespan
According to tweets by Musk and Ramaswamy, the ultimate goal of DOGE is to become so efficient that it eventually eliminates its own necessity. The organization has a set expiration date of July 4, 2026, the United States Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary), which follows Ramaswamy's idea that most government projects should have clear expiration dates.
Trump stated that the entity's work will "conclude" no later than July 4, 2026, also coinciding with a proposed "Great American Fair". Trump called the proposed results of DOGE "the perfect gift to America".
Reception and analysis
Support
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest American bank, has supported the idea of creating DOGE to improve government competency. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has also spoken in support of the idea.
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, stated that, prior to the official announcement of the creation of DOGE, Musk had called Federico Sturzenegger, Argentina's minister of deregulation and transformation of the state, to discuss imitating his ministry's model in the United States.
On January 10, 2025, 26 Republican state governors wrote a joint letter to leaders of Congress expressing, "overwhelming support for President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)". The governors also stated that they are committed to "stand ready to help DOGE—and Congress—be successful".
Bipartisan support of defense spending cuts
In December 2024, senator Bernie Sanders praised Musk on the plans by DOGE to cut defense spending; he stated that "Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions." Democratic congressman Ro Khanna also indicated that he would be open to working with DOGE to reduce defense spending.
Skepticism of goals, promises, and mandate
On October 28, 2024, at a Trump campaign rally in Madison Square Garden, Musk stated that he believed DOGE could reduce federal government spending by $2 trillion (a figure higher than the federal government's total discretionary spending in 2023). After the election, he said $2 trillion would be a best-case scenario, but he had a "good shot" at cutting $1 trillion. Musk has not specified whether these savings would be made over a single year or a longer period; federal budget experts generally assess fiscal matters over a 10-year budget window.
In November, Politico reported on growing concern from the tech world and several policy experts that the project was over-promising or could potentially tear down "much of the essential infrastructure that ushers along American innovation". Former US deputy chief technology officer Jennifer Pahlka stated that while civil service reform was needed, mass firings was the wrong answer. Senior fellow Brian Riedl at the Manhattan Institute said that DOGE's plan to fire 25% of the federal workforce would reduce only 1% of federal funding and require the hiring of contractors to fulfill the difference. The Washington Post cited critics who stated balancing the budget would require higher taxes or cuts to Medicare or Social Security, and DOGE's proposal to slash federal programs that Congress funds but whose authority had lapsed would cut "veterans' health care, initiatives at the State and Justice departments and NASA, and multiple major antipoverty programs". The Post also cited budget experts who said Musk and Ramaswamy's plan "demonstrates the pair's misunderstanding of how the government works".
Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum compared DOGE to the former Grace Commission which had zero of its 150 proposals enacted. According to chief economist Mark Zandi of Moody's, the 30% of the federal budget that is non-discretionary is at the lowest level in modern history as a percentage of GDP, and that even finding $200 billion of savings was highly unlikely. Senior director for federal budget policy Bobby Kogan at the Center for American Progress said that the "threat level for DOGE's recommendations making it through Congress is relatively low", and that $2 trillion in cuts would likely result in 33% cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and every program relating to veterans compensation and healthcare. Maya MacGuineas of the public policy organization Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has said that $2 trillion in savings is "absolutely doable" over a period of 10 years, but it would be difficult to do in a single year "without compromising some of the fundamental objectives of the government that are widely agreed upon". Desmond Lachman of American Enterprise Institute stated that "realistically, there isn't much political willingness to do the tough stuff that [needs] to be done to get the budget under control."
The committee has been seen as potentially redundant to the Government Accountability Office.
Legality
Questions have been raised whether Musk's and Ramaswamy's companies being contractors to the federal government causes a conflict of interest with their proposed work in DOGE.
Democratic representative Zoe Lofgren has criticized DOGE, calling it "unconstitutional and illegal" in relation to its proposals regarding the impoundment of appropriated funds by Congress.
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