President-elect Donald Trump has tasked businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with running a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), with a goal of reducing the size of the federal government. Their efforts have received significant publicity in the weeks since Trump’s victory. Yet, skeptics have wondered how much they can accomplish with no statutory authority. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The history of an earlier commission that worked to ferret out inefficiencies and cut government waste indicates that much will depend on whether they can get buy in from Congress.