SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new US government initiative aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit.

He called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)The initiative - which has an acronym matching Musk's favorite cryptocurrency ticker, Dogecoin– He will “cut excessive regulation, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies,” according to President-elect Donald Trump.

However, some details about the project are still unclear. Here's everything we know so far about DOGE.

What is dwg?

DOGE is an upcoming US government initiative that Elon Musk first tweeted about in August.

While the project initially appeared to be a gag — it was created as a gag, and unsurprisingly pumped up the price of Dogecoin whenever Musk mentioned it — Trump has thrown his support behind DOGE's push to limit government spending, suggesting that the once-fake administration would soon become... Real management. Life is an entity of the US government.

“Together, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, trim excess regulation, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies — essential to the Save America movement,” Trump said. He said In a statement.

Trump said the project would be active until “no later than July 4, 2026,” the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Notably, the DOGE is not an official US government department in the traditional sense, as only Congress - not the president - can approve the creation of new federal government departments. According to To the US Congress website.

Trump said that Musk's meme-related brainchild would exist "outside" the government system. This means that DOGE will likely not receive government funds. It also means that the project's ability to directly control the budgets of US government agencies will be minimal, although DOGE's directives could be enforced by Trump's supporters in Congress.

Who will manage DOGE?

Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the government's Ministry of Efficiency. Neither executive will receive compensation from their work, according to the Twitter post mail Posted by Musk.

Musk, of course, is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and the owner of Twitter (aka X). Ramaswamy is a businessman and one-time Republican presidential candidate who dropped out of the race during the primaries and threw his support behind Trump.

The initiative will also initially be staffed with a number of "young government revolutionaries with very high IQs who are willing to work more than 80 hours a week in order to reduce costs in an unobtrusive way," according to the ministry official. mail. It is not yet known how many workers will be hired to staff the project, but the gigs will not be paid, Elon Musk chirp.

Billionaire Marc Andreessen of venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has been hired to serve as DOGE's "key network talent recruiter." The Washington Post Quoted from an anonymous source.

The initiative's billionaire leaders have also joined forces with several prominent Silicon Valley figures to address "technical challenges to collecting data on federal employees and programs" — a major problem the initiative aims to solve, according to the same report. Those advisers include Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, the newspaper reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Neither Ramaswamy nor Musk responded to him Decryption Request for comment.

What will DOGE actually do?

DOGE's mission is to streamline the work of the US government by issuing reports that provide advice and guidance on reducing government regulations and spending, according to Trump.

“Your money is wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket,” Musk said in October at a Trump rally in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

The quasi-department plans to accomplish this mission by pushing its cost-cutting proposals through Congress. Musk and Ramaswamy could also present their ideas directly to Trump, who has the power to circumvent Congress and issue executive orders that would call for implementation of DOGE directives.

While critics have expressed doubts about how much change DOGE will be able to effect, it is becoming increasingly likely that budget-cutting measures will receive at least some attention in Congress.

In late November, GOP congressmen formed Congressional Assembly to Deliver Excellence in Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will support DOGE's directives on Capitol Hill.

The group of lawmakers in the House and Senate is still growing, even bringing in its first Democratic member, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) in early December. According to to The hill. The formation of the caucus is a sign that Musk and Ramaswamy's efforts to rally lawmakers behind their non-governmental agency are paying off.

In November, Musk and Ramaswamy traveled to Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago, where they interviewed “experienced Washington operators, legal professionals, and senior technology leaders” to lay out their plans for the agency, Reuters reported. The Washington Postany quote Five people familiar with the matter.

However, the billionaire leaders of the quasi-cabinet have made mixed statements about the extent to which US federal government spending should be cut.

Musk proposed cutting federal expenditures by $2 million, a third of the total US federal government budget. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy has said he would like to cut up to 75% of the US federal workforce, although the budget impact of such a reduction is unclear.

Despite these differences, DOGE leaders appear to be in agreement on cutting dozens of federal government employees and several U.S. agencies, such as the Department of Education and the FBI, to cut costs, according to recent public comments from Ramaswamy and Musk.

“The amount of waste (government money) is beyond what the public can imagine,” Musk said chirpreferring to US federal government spending, which topped $6 trillion in 2023

the The Washington Post Musk and Ramaswamy also plan to launch a podcast called “DOGEcast,” where they will provide weekly updates on their efforts, he reported.

Why is it called doge?

The fake section's initial, DOGE, appears to be a cheeky reference to Dogecoin (DOGE) ticker, a meme coin with a high market cap Loved by Elon Musk. This association was reinforced by the official T-shirt sold by Trump bearing the image of the president-elect, Musk, and a Shiba Inu dog.

The meme, famous for its Shiba Inu mascot, was invented in 2013 by two software engineers. Musk said he owns a "collection" of Dogecoin, and has routinely tweeted and spoken about the currency over the past years. He even called himself the "Dogefather" in 2021 and mentioned the currency while hosting Saturday Night Live.

Dogecoin's value rose amid Musk's support for Trump during the election campaign, then rose significantly after Trump's victory and amid the formal announcement of DOGE leadership. The coin reached its highest price in three years recently and helped spur other prominent meme currencies to rise in value as well.

What's the latest on DOGE?

Musk and Ramaswamy went to Capitol Hill on December 5 to discuss concrete outlines of DOGE's goals with a group of lawmakers.

In the private meeting, senators, mostly Republicans, considered businessmen's 60-page cost-cutting proposal for the federal government. Fox News I mentioned. The meeting was chaired by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chairman of the newly created DOGE Caucus in the US Senate.

During the hearing, Musk told lawmakers that he and Ramaswamy would maintain a "naughty and nice" list of politicians who support the billionaires' budget cut proposals, and those who do not, news agency I mentionedQuoting the representatives who attended the meeting.

In January, House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to create a task force of independent experts to liaise with DOGE, lending more legitimacy to the billionaires' non-government initiative. Johnson since then He was re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Modified by Andrew Hayward

Editor's Note: This story was originally published on November 17, 2024 and was last updated with new details on January 5, 2025.