Senate DOGE leader Ernst to take on government telework abuse at first meeting with Musk, Ramaswamy

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Joni Ernst is rolling out a proposal for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that would reduce government employee telework and sell empty government office space.

Ernst, R-Iowa, is the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus and has been working with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy since President-elect Trump tapped them to lead the new agency. 

Musk and Ramaswamy will visit Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with Republican lawmakers to discuss ways to reduce government waste. 

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Ernst will roll out her new proposal and a 60-page report during her first Senate DOGE Caucus meeting Thursday morning, which Musk and Ramaswamy are expected to attend.

House Speaker Mike Johnson will then hold an event with Musk and Ramaswamy Thursday afternoon for all Republican legislators in the House and Senate, which Ernst will attend. 

Ernst has been investigating telework abuse for two years and based her recommendations to DOGE on her findings. 

First, Ernst proposes the federal government relocate Washington’s workforce across the country. Ernst suggested legislation that would relocate the headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies outside Washington to areas with “existing expertise for carrying out the mission and goals of each.” 

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She also proposed legislation to relocate at least 30% of the employees from Washington, D.C., headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies to field offices in communities across the country. 

Ernst also suggested that the White House and executive branch agencies consider relocating some staff, without any congressional directive. 

Next, Ernst is proposing Congress set a goal for all federal government agencies to achieve a 60% daily occupancy at their headquarters, while noting that, currently, not a single agency sees even half capacity occupancy.

“There are thousands of other government buildings around the country sitting totally vacant and unused,” the report states. “Much of this is leased space.

“There is a simple answer,” the report continues. “Use it or lose it!” 

Ernst proposed that the General Services Administration auction “vacant, unneeded, and underutilized buildings and property without unnecessary strings and conditions.” 

She said agencies should “immediately cancel or allow to expire the $15 million worth of underutilized leased office space and property.”

“Not a single headquarters of a major agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full,” Ernst’s report said. “Government buildings average an occupancy rate of 12%.” 

According to the report, maintaining and leasing government office buildings costs approximately $8 billion every year, with another $7.7 billion spent on the energy to keep them up and running. 

Ernst said the government owns 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are partially empty.

She proposed that Congress pass a bipartisan bill, the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA) Reform Act to extend the Public Buildings Reform Board’s mission identifying unused properties for the government to sell.

She also proposed Congress pass legislation that requires the “reduction and consolidation of unused space to ensure all buildings achieve a utilization rate of 60 percent or more.” 

Meanwhile, Ernst is proposing that performance determine whether a federal employee may work from home. 

Ernst proposed that Congress pass nearly half a dozen bills that would “make telework transparent and accountable.” 

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Ernst also noted that federal employees have been “padding their paychecks” by claiming to be working in areas with higher pay rates, while actually living elsewhere. 

“My audits are finding as many as 23-68% of teleworking employees for some agencies are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay,” she said. “Some employees live more than 2,000 miles away from their office, and one ‘temporary’ teleworker collected higher locality pay for nearly a decade.” 

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Ernst will introduce her proposal to Musk and Ramaswamy during Thursday’s meeting, after the two said they are largely focused on how DOGE could assist in identifying waste and regulations that could be eliminated through the executive branch. 

Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of the legislature when President-elect Trump returns to office in January.