All Bark, No Bite? Musk's DOGE Unlikely To Have Any Real Power

Comment Well, it's official(ish): US president-elect Donald Trump has made good on a campaign promise to appoint Elon Musk to the head of "the Department of Government Efficiency" – or DOGE. 

No, we're not joking. Doge, as in Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency championed by the SpaceX supremo.

We even warned about the possibility of such a move back in September when Musk and Trump's cozy relationship first started to bubble up to the surface of the campaign.

Who'd have thought the world's richest man, whose business empire relies on American government contracts and also clashes with American regulators, would be interested in helping Donald oversee the running of American government organizations and their spending? It's wild how they came to be such good friends. Musk's super PAC reportedly spent about $200 million helping Trump get reelected.

With yesterday's announcement, Trump made it somewhat official that Musk will co-chair of DOGE with former biotech CEO-cum-Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies." 

The Tesla chief has openly talked of reducing the number of US government agencies to 99 from a few hundred, setting up a leaderboard of the "most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars," and proposing cuts in a transparent way before making a final decision.

As with many things in the world of politics and government bureaucracy, however, that's easier said than done. With Republicans holding a majority in the Senate and projected to gain control of the House, Trump has a stronger foundation to push for sweeping restructures of the federal government. However, significant changes would still face hurdles – this DOGE could easily end up being much bark and not much bite.

First things first: It probably won't be a real department

Creating a new government department isn't something that can just be done willy-nilly, nor can it be done by the president – that's an authority constitutionally placed in the hands of Congress. Yes, it's a Congress pretty much in Republican control but, still, Congress needs to act.

Trump's statement yesterday about Musk and Ramaswamy's appointments to jointly head DOGE seemed to acknowledge that – at least tacitly – when he explained DOGE would "provide advice and guidance from outside of government" in partnership with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget – not as an official arm of the Feds. 

That makes DOGE more likely to be a commission in everything but name, leaving it with little real authority to do anything besides make suggestions. Yes, suggestions into the ear of the president, but that's not the same as an actual executive department.

In other words, don't expect Musk and Ramaswamy to easily "drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending," as Trump suggested in his statement. The reality is that DOGE will probably be nothing but an independent advisory committee, according to co-president Robert Weissman, of advocacy group and think tank Public Citizen.

"They can make recommendations," Weissman told The Register, but whether "Trump could unilaterally act on those recommendations is going to vary based on what they are."

Undoing rules put in place by the Biden administration is perfectly within Trump's executive authority, Weissman explained. Doing away with the Department of Education, on the other hand, will still need Congressional approval.

Ultimately, for the level of changes Trump is suggesting DOGE could recommend, "the line of accountability runs through Congress," Weissman assured. 

Speaking of Congress …

Trump could theoretically propose changes across the executive branch based on DOGE's recommendations – but he would need legislation granting him presidential reorganization authority. 

First granted by Congress in 1939, presidential reorganization authority gives the president the right to overhaul executive departments in order to reconfigure them for efficiency and economy with minimal oversight. 

Under the rule, which has been used only 16 times by nine presidents, reorganization plans submitted to Congress have to be explicitly denied by both the House and Senate within 60 days of submission, or else they automatically enter into force. 

There are limits to what the president can do with such authority, however, which make it unlikely Trump could use it to abolish agencies or implement all the suggestions that come from Musk and Ramaswamy. 

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According to a 2008 Congressional research report [PDF] on presidential directives, reorganization plans can't abolish or create entire departments, must deal with just "one logically consistent subject matter," only one can be submitted every 30 days, and all proposals must include "a clear statement on the projected economic savings expected to result." 

Last used by 40th president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, additional amendments to the president's reorganization authority that made it easier to get proposals through Congress expired in 1984 and haven't been renewed. 

Again, with potentially both arms of Congress under Republican control, it's distinctly possible Trump could get new rules pushed through that add to his reorganization authority. But the majority in the Senate is slim enough that it's not a sure thing.

"Most of these things are subject to filibuster," Weissman noted, as Republicans only have 53 seats in the Senate – seven short of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.

It'll also be hard to mess with independent agencies

Musk's, er, understanding of efficiency aside, his role as the co-chair of DOGE would seemingly put him in a position to attack the same government agencies that have tried to hold him accountable over the years.

Presidential reorganization authority is limited only to executive branch departments. But that still means DOGE could suggest changes at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (a subsidiary of the executive branch's Department of Transportation), which regulates Musk's automaker Tesla; the Department of Justice; or at NASA, which is independent but still subject to executive oversight and works with the tycoon's SpaceX. 

Proposing changes at the FCC, which oversees SpaceX's Starlink; FTC; or SEC, which has sanctioned Elon in the past, on the other hand, would be nothing but a wish list. Those bodies are among the long list of US federal agencies that operate independently of the executive branch – which probably won't stop him from trying.

Deregulation across the board is possible, which would suit Musk and other business leaders, but not necessarily straightforward to achieve.

"Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new 'czar' position," Lisa Gilbert, Weissman's co-president at Public Citizen, asserted in a statement yesterday after the creation of DOGE was announced.

"I'm skeptical that this pretend department is going to be a real force for destruction," Weissman added. "But I do think [the Trump administration] intends to move forward in the areas they're alluding to, firing government employees and gutting regulation."

Just don't expect it, in all likelihood, to come from the DOGE. ®