President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday outlining a "cost efficiency initiative" for federal agencies working with the Department of Government Efficiency.
The order asks agencies to coordinate with the chief of their DOGE team to review contracts and grants and to terminate or modify them "where appropriate."
The order also directs the General Services Administration to submit a plan within 60 days to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought regarding any government-owned real estate that is "no longer needed." Since beginning his second term last month, Trump reportedly has been weighing the sale of two-thirds of the federal government's office supply to the private sector.
The GSA owns, manages, and leases much of the government's real estate and controls and takes care of a large number of federal buildings. But a lack of funding has led to many of those buildings being poorly maintained, and they are sitting empty or underused, the GSA testified before Congress in 2023.
The executive order also asks agencies to build a system to "record every payment" spent on the agency's contracts and grants and provide a "brief, written justification for each payment." Further, it asks agency heads to work with their DOGE team chief to build a system to record approval for federally funded travel or conferences and provide written justification for conferences or nonessential travel.
Trump's action builds upon another DOGE-related executive order he signed Feb. 11 that directed agencies to work with DOGE to cut staff and limit hiring.
DOGE, led by Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk, was tasked by Trump to streamline the federal government by eliminating waste and fraud. Its efforts to reduce the federal workforce took another step forward Wednesday when OMB and the Office of Personnel Management sent a seven-page memo that directs agencies to prepare for large-scale layoffs and offers guidance on implementing them, according to Semafor.
The memo directs agencies to submit an initial round of "Agency Reorganization Plans" to OMB and OPM by March 13, including a list of which agency subcomponents offer "direct services to citizens" and direction on whether the entire agency — or any part of the agency — can be eliminated.
It also directs agencies to submit a second round of plans by April 14 and orders agencies to send monthly progress reports for three months after that date.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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