Two top DOGE lawmakers are teaming up with a new bill to cut what they claim is bureaucratic waste and slash a whopping $600 billion from the federal budget.
After Donald Trump tasked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the pair have been looking for ways to cut spending.
Musk says his aim is to save taxpayers $2trillion in the first years of Trump’s second administration, though he has been dialing that figure back.
Since then they have requested ideas on how to crack down on wasting taxpayer funds and met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss ways to trim the government’s fat.
DOGE congressional leaders Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas believe they have an measure that can do just that.
They say The Regulations Evaluated to Determine The Anticipated Price and Effect (RED TAPE) Act will lead to dramatic cuts in federal spending.
The bill would essentially reverse regulations the Biden administration have placed on agencies to try and make everyday appliances – like washing machines – more energy friendly.
Under President Joe Biden, federal guidelines – or ‘greenie’ initiatives – were put in place to help improve ‘social net benefits’.
In March 2024, for example, the Department of Energy (DOE) introduced rules for clothes dryers.
Biden’s Department of Energy argued the new rules would save $3.3 billion in climate-related ‘net benefits’ and $6.6 billion in health ‘net benefits.’
But Ernst and Sessions insists these ‘net benefits’ claims by Biden have created more red tape that ends up costing the taxpayers more.
The pair say that between November 2023 and January 2025, 50 new regulations provided the Democratic administration $600 billion worth of offsets, which they have used to actually spend more money.
‘The real threat to our democracy is an unchecked bureaucracy,’ Ernst told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘President Biden’s greenie math has added up to hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden regulatory costs for Americans, and enough is enough.’
‘I am putting a stop to this nonsense by breaking out my scissors and cutting through the RED TAPE,’ she continued.
In addition to disallowing these non-monetary ‘net benefits’ from driving up costs, the law would also provide a legal pathway for those impacted by these benefits to challenge them in U.S. district courts.
‘In 2023, the Biden-Harris administration issued guidance that directed government agencies to heavily incorporate non-monetary values into their cost-benefit analyses of proposed regulations,’ Sessions told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘Instead of measuring the fiscal costs and benefits of a regulation, federal agencies are now assigning monetary value to obscure qualitative data,’ he went on.
‘These regulations come at a cost to taxpayers, and there must be integrity, transparency, and a clear commitment to measurable results for the American people in this process. I am proud to work with Senator Ernst on this vital legislation to ensure mismanagement and waste are eliminated from our government.’
