exclusive: Senator Joni Ernst Government Efficiency Bureau (DOGE) Plans to reduce telework for government employees and sell vacant government office space.
Ernst, R-Iowa, is the chair of the Senate DOGE caucus and has been working with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy since President-elect Trump nominated them to lead the new agency.
Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy are scheduled to visit the Capitol on Thursday to meet with Republican lawmakers and discuss ways to reduce government waste.
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Sen. Joni Ernst speaks at the third session of the Senate Project at the U.S. Senate Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston on June 12, 2023. (Getty Images)
Mr. Ernst is scheduled to present the new proposal and 60-page report at the first Senate DOGE caucus meeting on Thursday morning, where Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy are also expected to attend.
House Speaker Mike Johnson will then hold an event Thursday afternoon with Musk and Ramaswamy for all Republicans in both chambers of Congress, with Ernst expected to attend.
Ernst has been investigating telework abuses for two years and is making recommendations to DOGE based on his findings.
First, Ernst proposes that the federal government redeploy Washington staff across the country. Mr. Ernst proposed a bill that would move the headquarters of non-security-related government departments to areas outside Washington where they have “existing expertise to carry out their respective missions and goals.”
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He also proposed legislation that would move at least 30% of staff from Washington, D.C., the home of non-security-related government departments, to field offices in communities across the country.
Ernst also suggested that the White House and executive branch agencies consider reassigning some staff without direction from Congress.
Next, Ernst is proposing that Congress set a goal for all federal agencies to reach 60% daily occupancy in their headquarters, which is currently at half occupancy. It points out that there is no single institution.
President Trump announced on November 12, 2024 that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. (Getty Images)
“Thousands of other government buildings across the country remain completely vacant and unused,” the report said. “The majority of this is leased space.
“The answer is simple,” the report continues. “Use it or lose it!”
Ernst proposed auctioning off the General Services Administration's “vacant, unnecessary, and underutilized buildings and properties without unnecessary terms or conditions.”
He said the agency should “immediately cancel or allow $15 million worth of underutilized leased office space and real estate to expire.”
According to Ernst's report, “not a single headquarters of a major government agency or department in the capital is less than half full.” “The average occupancy rate for government buildings is 12%.”
According to the report, maintaining and leasing government buildings costs approximately $8 billion each year, with an additional $7.7 billion spent on energy to keep the buildings operational.
Ernst said the government owns 7,697 vacant buildings and an additional 2,265 partially vacant buildings.
He proposed that Congress pass the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA) Reform Act, a bipartisan bill that would expand the mandate of the Public Building Reform Commission to identify unused properties for government sale.
Sen. Joni Ernst speaks with reporters after the Senate Republicans' weekly policy luncheon at the Capitol on March 6, 2024 in Washington. (Reuters/Bonnie Cash)
He also proposed that Congress pass a bill that would require “the reduction and consolidation of unused space to ensure that all buildings are at least 60 percent occupied.”
Meanwhile, Ernst suggests that whether federal employees can work from home will be determined by performance.
Ernst proposed that Congress pass nearly six bills that would “enable transparency and accountability in telework.”
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Ernst also said federal employees are “inflating their pay” by claiming to work in areas with higher pay rates when they actually live elsewhere.
“My audit found that between 23 and 68 percent of employees working from home at some agencies received incorrect locality benefits that increased their pay,” she said. “Some employees lived more than 3,000 miles from the office, and one ‘temporary’ teleworker received a higher local salary for nearly a decade.”
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Mr. Ernst is expected to present his proposal to Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy during Thursday's meeting, but the pair will primarily focus on how DOGE can help identify waste and regulations that can be eliminated primarily through the executive branch. He said he was guessing.
Republicans will control the White House and both houses of Congress in the next case. president-elect trump Returned to office in January.
