Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two tech billionaires with an anti-government ax to grind, want to cut $500 billion from the federal budget. They went to Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain their intentions to Republican lawmakers. But how exactly is the “Department of Government Efficiency” supposed to work?

First of all, it’s not actually a department of the government.

“Only Congress can create a department,” said David C. Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor and expert on administrative procedures. The organization proposed by Musk and Ramaswamy would instead be a government advisory committee that would only have the authority to make recommendations to Congress on government waste and inefficiency. Vladeck said: “Ironically, the government already holds this position, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget.”

At first glance, the “Doge” effort appears to be a dual effort. Musk met with Mike Johnson, John Thune and other Republican leaders and highlighted recommendations from the Government Accountability Office – an independent agency headed by the comptroller – that if implemented could cut the federal budget by up to $200 billion a year.

Eugene Dodaro has held the position of comptroller since 2008 under both Republican and Democratic administrations. The position requires a presidential appointment, which is subject to Senate confirmation. Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy would be subject to legislative questioning in a confirmation hearing if Doge is an out-of-state advisory committee, which may be one reason it was suggested that way.

Still, Johnson called the initiative a “historic moment” and praised the two as “innovators” willing to streamline government processes.

Although the Doge Advisory Board will not be a government agency, it will still fall under the auspices of federal law. The Federal Advisory Committee Act regulates its operations. The first step requires Musk and Ramaswamy to present a charter to the president, Vladeck said.

“The Advisory Committee Act provides that most of the Advisory Committee’s deliberations must be made public,” Vladeck said. “To the extent that Elon Musk wants to do all this in the dark, you really can’t do that as an advisory committee.”

Musk and Ramaswamy have not yet presented a charter for the committee to the public, if not the president.

A key element of the Advisory Committee Act is that the Committee Rules “contain appropriate provisions to ensure that the advice and recommendations of the Advisory Committee are not unduly influenced by the appointing authority or special interests, but are instead the result of the Advisory Committee . “independent assessment of the advisory committee”.

Special interests are at stake for Musk, who owns or manages many companies with large government contracts and whose profitability relies on a favorable regulatory environment. That won’t be enough to stop Musk from chairing the committee, but could require him to recuse himself if NASA budget questions arise related to his SpaceX company, Vladeck said.

“It won’t be a committee of two,” he said. “It will be a committee of 20 or 30 people. And again, he’s just making a recommendation, and if there’s any fiscal responsibility, that would be up to Congress.”

James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is reportedly setting up a parallel Doge subcommittee to respond to the Efficiency Effort’s recommendations. The subcommittee will be chaired by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Doge’s bipartisan potential received a boost when Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz joined the Doge caucus and emphasized that improving efficiency does not have to mean cutting services.

“I will join the Congressional Doge Caucus because I believe streamlining government processes and reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue. “I have made it clear that there are ways we can reorganize our government to make it work better for the American people,” Moskowitz said.

Musk and Ramaswamy laid out their vision for the efficiency effort in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal last month. Their initially stated targets include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, international organizations that receive U.S. grants, and political outside groups that receive federal funding such as Planned Parenthood .

But they are also considering a comprehensive reduction in federal staff. The two are already demanding that government agencies require federal workers to return to the office and end generous work-from-home programs.

Senator Joni Ernst echoed that sentiment in a 60-page report released Thursday.

“Taxpayers are billed more than $182,000 per employee annually to cover operations and maintenance costs at the Department of Labor headquarters,” the report said. “On an average day, fewer than 500 employees work in the building, which costs nearly $60 million per year to rent, operate and maintain.”

Ernst argues that there is no concrete connection between allowing federal employees to work from home regularly and improved performance. Meanwhile, the federal government is spending billions maintaining office space for people who are never there.

So either fill the offices with workers or get rid of them, she said.

One consequence of this strategy is that many federal employees—who enjoy strong federal civil service protections for their jobs—may quit if asked to return to office, allowing Congress and the president to face a wave of To avoid litigation and possible compensation for mass layoffs at the federal level.

However, these areas only make up a small part of the overall budget. Most federal spending is mandatory: Congress must change core constitutional laws to reduce spending on Social Security (24% of the budget), Medicare (14%) and veterans’ benefits (3.5%), which Trump has vowed to To do all this do not touch.

Discretionary spending is also politically sensitive. About $1.6 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal year 2024 is split between $842 billion for defense programs and $758 billion for non-defense activities, which include measures such as federal law enforcement and air traffic control.

U.S. support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and retooling of the Navy and Marine Corps for the potential conflict with China are leading to defense cuts. But financial watchdogs like Sen. Elizabeth Warren may be willing to make common cause with Republicans if it means eliminating inefficiencies in Pentagon spending.

Brandon Arnold of the National Tax Union noted that refusing to address “sacred cows” like defense limits meaningful progress. For example, Pentagon audits have uncovered waste in weapons systems and procurement processes. However, previous Republican efforts to reduce spending often failed.

As Musk said, “We need to make sure we are spending the public’s money well.” Musk has listed July 4, 2026 as the expiration date for the Doge recommendations.