How Musk and Ramaswamy could cut federal government jobs
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Cities across the country, including Austin, could soon see job cuts by a key employer — the federal government.
Why it matters: Tapped by President-elect Trump to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have vowed to cut what they deem wasteful spending.
- "We expect mass reductions," Ramaswamy told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" on Nov. 17. "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. … We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government."
- Last year, when he was running for president, Ramaswamy pledged to immediately fire 50% of "federal bureaucrats" should he get elected.
By the numbers: About 1.7% of workers in greater Austin were federal employees in 2022 — or 23,126 workers out of 1,357,836, per the most recent Census Bureau data available.
- In Austin, they include IRS workers — the tax agency has a center near the corner of I-35 and Texas 71, air traffic controllers, Social Security employees, postal workers and judges.
- Federal employees make up the largest portion of the workforce in, naturally, Washington, D.C. (13.9%), with Huntsville, Alabama (9.3%), and Virginia Beach, Virginia (9.2%), following.
- Federal employees make up bigger portions of the workforce in cities with large military installations, such as San Antonio (4.5%) and El Paso (6%).
Follow the money: The average annual pay for a federal employee is about $106,000, per ZipRecruiter.
- The U.S. has about 2 million civilian employees working across U.S. states and territories per a 2024 Congressional Research Service report, so cutting half the employees, as Ramaswamy has suggested, could save the government about $100 billion annually in salaries.
How it works: Sources tell Axios Musk wants to use AI and crowdsourcing to hunt for waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE isn't a government department: Musk and Ramaswamy plan to set up a nongovernmental entity to try to pull off the entrepreneurial approach to government that Trump envisions.
What they're saying: "This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!" Musk said in a statement.
The other side: "People are apprehensive and fearful," Nicole Cantello, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency who now serves as a union president representing EPA workers in the Upper Midwest, told NPR.
- "Millions of Americans should brace for massive cuts to benefits and services they rely on for their survival under plans to target government spending and operations," American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a Nov. 13 statement.
Reality check: But with federal employees throughout the country — think of your neighborhood letter carrier — it'll be hard for the Trump administration to make real cuts.
- Members of Congress generally are allergic to cutting hometown jobs and government services.
- "When are we going to do what we said we would do?" U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican who represents parts of the Texas Hill Country, said in November 2023 after the GOP-led House passed a funding bill that didn't include the sorts of spending cuts Republicans had campaigned on.
The bottom line: The aspiration of trillions of dollars of savings will run headlong into the unspoken governing theory of both parties, write Axios' Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen: It's easier and more popular to give than to take away.