A House Republican and Democrat agreed that Cabinet secretaries should play a larger role in making decisions about their employees once the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission identifies the waste and excess spending.
In separate interviews on NewsNation’s “The Hill” on Monday, Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.) praised tech billionaire Elon Musk’s goal of making government more efficient, but suggested he route his ideas through secretaries so that they can be implemented in the most effective ways for their respective departments.
“Look, I understand that secretaries manage their departments. And, while DOGE is very helpful, it should be viewed as a resource rather than the operating system for the entire federal government,” Davidson said when asked how he feels about DOGE and its efforts.
Davidson stated that DOGE has “highlighted some very important things,” citing the activity at USAID as “exactly right,” adding, “They highlighted problems with USAID, and then [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio took over USAID.” He decided what he was going to do to reduce USAID.
Davidson encouraged Musk to collaborate with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to carry out the recommendations.
“The idea that you’re going to run all this from Elon Musk’s Twitter feed, or X feed, you know, really isn’t good,” according to Davidson. “And I think that Elon Musk and Susie Wiles would do well to sit down and have a little heart-to-heart and run things through the secretaries, in my opinion.”
The interview takes place in the midst of confusion over Musk’s latest push to improve government efficiency.
On Saturday afternoon, Musk directed an email to all federal employees asking them to respond by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday with five things they accomplished the week before. Musk stated that failure to respond by the deadline would be taken as resignation.
Soon after, however, several departments emailed their employees and instructed them not to respond. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) clarified on Monday that responses to the email were voluntary, and that failure to respond would not be considered resignation.
However, Musk appeared to disregard that guidance later on Monday and reaffirmed his previous position, stating that federal employees would “be given another chance” and that “failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
Davidson praised Musk in the interview, saying that sending that email is often a “useful tool” for exposing unnecessary layers of management or identifying underperforming employees.
He said it becomes more difficult in such a large bureaucracy, and it’s understandable to wonder how officials would sort through all those email responses.
“It’s a valid point to make: unless you’ve really built the architecture, it’s impossible to read that many emails. “So why are we doing this?” Davidson said. “So you want them to be productive. That is essentially the point of DOGE. And I believe the best way to accomplish this is to route the good ideas through the secretaries.”
In a subsequent interview, Bera said he mostly agreed with his Ohio colleague but found the email approach “somewhat sophomoric,” adding, “That’s not the way you go about justifying someone’s job.”
He advocated for Cabinet secretaries to play a bigger role.
“I agree with my colleague from Ohio, who was just speaking: give it to the Cabinet secretaries, the people in charge of running the agencies. They’re Donald Trump’s handpicked people, so let them go through their agencies and see what programs are relevant, which aren’t, and where you might be able to cut back.”
When asked if he would be satisfied with large cuts and layoffs of federal employees if the Cabinet secretaries led those efforts, Bera said, “I hope the secretaries work with us in Congress.” As Congressman Davidson stated, “You have to pass legislation.”
“I am not here to argue that there is no waste or inefficient programs, but please work with us. And again, if Elon Musk identifies something, he’s clearly a technology wizard: modernize government, make it work better and more efficiently for the American people,” Bera said.
“But again, on the layoffs, the human resources side, that’s best left to the agencies,” he mentioned.
