Musk, Ramaswamy target federal remote work policies in US budget cut push: Report

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - Tesla and X head Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy met Thursday with some US Republican lawmakers to tackle remote work policies as part of efforts to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, according to a report.

ABC News reported that the two businessmen attended closed-door meetings with Republican members of the House and Senate and presented proposals under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory board established by President-elect Donald Trump.

Musk shared a report by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst and claimed that only 6% of federal employees work in person full-time, with others abusing telework privileges.

The report included an anecdote about a Department of Veterans Affairs manager working from a bathtub, sparking criticism.

"If you exclude security guards and maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%! Almost no one," Musk said on X.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson echoed Musk’s concerns and called for a return to office mandates to improve efficiency.

Trump announced in November the creation of a new advisory group, DOGE, set to be led by Musk and Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur.

The two "will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement.