President-elect Donald Trump’s vision to streamline government efficiency, and slash unnecessary government spending, may start with federal employees being required to return to work in the office full time.
This according to a key member of Trump’s transition team.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said that mandating in-office attendance could encourage voluntary departures among federal workers, potentially reducing what he sees as bureaucratic inefficiencies.
In a recent interview, Ramaswamy described his proposal as a way to address what he characterized as a bloated federal bureaucracy.
Ramaswamy told Tucker Carlson on his podcast that he wanted to take a “jackhammer and a chain saw” to the federal government, starting by forcing civil servants to return to work.
“They don’t go to work,” he said. “You don’t even have to talk about you’re in a mass firing, a mass exodus. Just tell them they have to come back five days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.”
Ramaswamy predicted that would lead to a “25% thinning out of the federal bureaucracy right there.”
According to a Fox News report, federal employees are responsible for managing a $6.1 trillion budget, with payroll costs totaling $110 billion annually, representing just 1.8% of the total budget.
Ramaswamy believes a return-to-office mandate would lead to about 550,000 resignations, potentially saving $27.5 billion annually.
Ramaswamy has tied his proposal to regulatory reform, arguing that reducing the workforce could lead to a rollback of unnecessary regulations.
While some critics argue this could slash jobs for workers, advocates of a return to office like Ramaswamy believe focusing on targeted reforms, such as modernizing outdated systems, leveraging technology, and identifying specific inefficiencies, can achieve meaningful cost reductions without jeopardizing essential functions.