Legal Hurdles Abound for DOGE's Ideas

Musk, Ramaswamy may be limited in attempts to slash federal spending

- BY JAN WOLFE AND JESS BRAVIN

Donald Trump has unveiled ambitious plans in his new administration to cut $2 trillion from federal spending, engineered at least in part by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Department of Government Efficiency.

The wealthy entrepreneurs have already proposed ideas such as suspending a swath of regulations, reducing the federal workforce and removing government agencies outright.

But the president-elect's attempts to slash federal programs and financial responsibilities Congress has adopted over generations could face steep legal hurdles.

The DOGE team, which isn't a government agency, will provide advice to the White House Office of Management and Budget for the incoming Trump administration, Musk and Ramaswamy have said.

Here is where some of DOGE's initial proposals could run into legal trouble.

'Delete' agencies

Legal observers are skeptical of Trump and his entire government agencies.

Trump has floated eliminating the Education Department and Musk has called for an end to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created by Congress in the wake of the 2008-09 banking crisis.

"Delete CFPB," Musk said in a post on his social-media platform X. "There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."

Since the Education Department and the CFPB, like other federal agencies, were created by legislation, it would take an act of Congress to eliminate them.

Even if Republicans could marshal their narrow House majority to dismantle the departments, the odds of passing the Senate are near zero.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) introduced a bill that would transfer the Education Department's work to other agencies. It isn't clear how any money would be saved without eliminating that work altogether.