President-elect Donald Trump’s regulatory-chopping team hasn’t officially launched yet, but its leaders are already strategizing with lawmakers and publicizing their ideas about what they’d like to cut.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneurs Trump has picked to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have spent recent weeks sharing their grievances about government spending and outlining their plans for squeezing certain programs and cutting what they see as low-hanging fruit in their quest to reduce the scope of the federal bureaucracy.
Among their targets: last-minute energy spending and regulations from the Biden administration, cash for high-speed rail, federal telework agreements and Daylight Saving Time.
The details of how the Musk-Ramaswamy effort will operate and what authority it will have remain unclear. They have said they’ll work as volunteers outside the government in conjunction with the incoming Trump White House.
