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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would support Elon Musk’s plans to force US federal workers to return to the office once Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting with Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with rooting out government inefficiency, Johnson cited a report that he said showed only about “one percent” of civil servants were actually working in their offices , if these were federal officials, security personnel and maintenance personnel were not counted.

The report released Thursday by Joni Ernst, the Republican senator for Iowa, said that “bureaucrats were found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own businesses and even caught committing crimes while “Using the taxpayer’s time.” .

Ernst’s report added that only 6 percent of the federal workforce is in the office full-time and that “not a single major agency headquarters in Washington is even half full,” with average utilization at just 12 percent.

“This is absurd and it is not something the American people will stand for,” Johnson said of the report’s findings, adding that there will be a demand “from the new administration and from all of us in Congress” that federal workers return to their desks”.

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has asked to jointly run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, wrote in a Wall Street Journal article last month that they believe federal employees should return to the office five days a week.

They predicted that this would “lead to a wave of voluntary resignations, which we welcome,” adding: “If federal workers don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.” “

Musk has promised to use Doge to create $2 trillion in savings within the federal government, while Ramaswamy said he would like to lay off 75 percent of the federal workforce. Neither has presented detailed plans for how these goals will be achieved.

In recent months there have been increasing calls for employees to return to the office full-time. In September, Amazon told employees they would no longer be allowed to work from home starting early next year, while Dell and PwC have issued similar orders for some employees.

The Biden administration has also tried to crack down on government employees working from home, issuing guidance last year for agencies to “significantly increase meaningful in-person work in federal offices, particularly at headquarters and equivalent positions.” “.