What will Musk and Ramaswamy’s DOGE do? How Trump wants to strengthen his executive power and weaken the role of Congress

The portfolio of the new commission – Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) – whose creation was announced by Trump on Tuesday November 12 is very broad, so much so that Trump declared that it would potentially become “the Manhattan Project of our era ” . DOGE will be responsible, among other things, for “dismantling government bureaucracy, removing excessive regulations, reducing unnecessary spending, and restructuring federal agencies.”

• DOGE will not be a new federal state department, but will likely take the form of a presidential commission whose purpose will be “to provide advice and guidance from outside of government.”
• Unlike a real department, the creation of which requires the agreement of both houses of Congress, a presidential commission can be created by a simple executive order signed by the president .
• Trump notably established in 2017 the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis as well as the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Biden, for his part, created a commission in April 2021 aimed at exploring avenues for reforming the Supreme Court.

While Trump would potentially be able to get Congress to approve the creation of DOGE, the likelihood that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk will be approved by the Senate to lead it is very low.

• The appointment of the two businessmen would present significant conflicts of interest due to their stock portfolios.
• Musk is also involved in government contracts through his company SpaceX. Its electric vehicle company, Tesla, meanwhile, benefits from significant tax incentives from the federal government.
• They could, however, negotiate with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) measures aimed at temporarily eliminating these conflicts of interest.

DOGE will not be able, under the laws currently in force, to make changes in the way the government spends and manages the appropriations granted by Congress – which is, according to declarations and press releases from the Trump campaign, its sole reason to be. In order to guarantee this commission a certain freedom of maneuver, the president-elect could, however, seek to repeal certain provisions provided for in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 .

• This federal law strengthens Congress’s role in the process of spending legislative appropriations and establishes procedures to prevent the President from blocking or delaying the allocation of funds.
• This was enacted following Richard Nixon’s refusal to release funds allocated by Congress for certain programs he opposed – something Trump could also be tempted to do upon his return to the White House.

On his campaign website, Trump publicly stated that he would take steps “to challenge the constitutionality of the limits on the seizure power of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (CBA), which originally of the usurpation of executive powers by Congress » . During his campaign for the Republican primaries, Ramaswamy also declared that he would “ask Congress to repeal or amend the 1974 law and stop funding agencies that waste money or that no longer have reason for being » .

• Despite a comfortable majority won by the GOP in the Senate and a narrow majority retained in the House of Representatives, Trump fears facing opposition from some lawmakers during his second term.
• In the Senate, this could come from moderate Republicans – like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski or even John Curtis – and from skeptics, like Indiana Senator Todd Young or outgoing GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

Strengthening executive power is a goal pursued by Trump and widely supported by his entourage. Following his victory in the presidential election, the president of the conservative think tank Center for Renewing America, former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and also co-author of Project 2025, Russell Vought, declared that “we [les alliés de Trump] “We must arm the President with every constitutional power at his disposal” — including “restoring the President’s authority to withhold wasteful funds from Congress.” .