President Donald Trump eliminated the non-statutory functions of several small federal agencies in his effort to “dramatically reduce the size of the federal government” in an executive order Wednesday.
The move specifically targets federal entities such as the Presidio Trust, which directs federal funds to a San Francisco park; the Inter-American Foundation, which responds to “community challenges” in Latin America and the Caribbean; the U.S. African Development Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurial activity in Africa and the U.S. Institute of Peace, which is dedicated to preventing violent conflict abroad . The directive mandates a workforce and budget reduction “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” meaning only the organizations’ core, legally required functions will remain. The order also directs advisors to submit a list of additional entities to eliminate within 30 days.
“It is the policy of my Administration to dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government, while increasing its accountability to the American people,” the president’s order says. “This order commences a reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary. Reducing the size of the Federal Government will minimize Government waste and abuse, reduce inflation, and promote American freedom and innovation.”
Unless @DOGE ends the careers of deceitful, pork-barrel politicians, the waste and corruption will never stop.
Therefore, there is no choice but to do so.
I wish there was another way, but there is not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
The directive will save billions in taxpayer dollars and “return power to local communities and state governments” by reducing the federal footprint, according to the order’s fact sheet. The order is a smaller continuation of the president’s effort to cut wasteful spending and downsize the federal government.
“The government wastes billions of dollars each year on duplicative programs and frivolous expenditures that fail to align with American values or address the needs of the American people,” the fact sheet continues.
The executive order echoes Trump’s Feb. 10 directive to eliminate the Federal Executive Institute, another smaller agency intended to provide leadership training to government bureaucrats. Trump has also recently targeted larger agencies in recent weeks, enacting substantial workforce and budget cuts to the Department of Education and eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) almost entirely.
DOGE reports cutting $55 billion in federal spending so far, with the largest percentages coming out of USAID and the Department of Education. The savings also largely came through mass terminations and resignations via the president’s federal employee buyout offer, which about 75,000 federal workers accepted, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Musk said DOGE also eliminated $59 million in FEMA spending that housed illegal aliens in upscale New York City hotels. Former President Joe Biden significantly increased FEMA’s budget and overall footprint, primarily via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, through which he boosted the agency’s budget by $6.8 billion. The former president justified the increase as necessary for combatting climate change-related natural disasters.
The president also plans to terminate 6,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents Thursday, according to The New York Times.
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