Musk's DOGE wants to slash regulations. Workers and patients may suffer, experts say.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has vowed to dismantle thousands of federal regulations as the co-head of a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, says the nation’s financial security depends on it.
The U.S. risks “strangulation by regulation” as it hurtles toward “bankruptcy super fast,” Musk said in a pair of posts on X this month.
Musk’s general concern about the nation’s multi-trillion dollar debt reflects worry among many economists, and his slash-and-burn rhetoric mirrors that of close ally President-elect Donald Trump.
The ambitious cuts championed by Musk, however, could imperil an array of federal protections that safeguard against harm in just about every corner of American life, regulatory experts told ABC News.
Regulations ensure air and water remain free of toxic pollution, workers receive safety gear and overtime pay, drugs undergo rigorous testing and corporations steer clear of ripping off customers.
"Revoking regulations or refusing to enforce them will endanger people’s lives," Michael Gerrard, a law professor at Columbia University who specializes in environmental regulation, told ABC News. "I'm very worried."
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump transition team touted the involvement of Musk and his plans for streamlining U.S. government.
“Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” Brian Hughes, a transition spokesperson, told ABC News.
What does DOGE aim to do?
DOGE, the commission co-led by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, plans to recommend a “vast reduction” of federal regulations, the two leaders said in a joint op-ed in The Wall Street Journal last week.
Such regulatory cuts would diminish the workload of government agencies, allowing for a significant reduction of federal workers and department budgets, the DOGE leaders said. They recommended a mandate that all federal workers come to the office five days a week, which they claimed would trigger a wave of resignations.
“Now is the moment for decisive action,” Musk and Ramaswamy said, but the pair did not identify specific regulations that they would like to cut.
Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did Ramaswamy.
The promise of regulatory cuts may prove more compelling as a declaration of war against the status quo than a nitty-gritty elimination of individual rules, experts said. They pointed to significant legal hurdles faced in unwinding government regulations, as well as the lack of direct authority available to DOGE, a non-governmental entity.
Plus, the experts added, many government regulations involve direct protections of importance to a swath of Americans.
Air pollution, heat safety among potential regulatory cuts
Some experts pointed for instance to an air-quality standard put in place by the Biden administration in February. The regulation lowered the amount of particulate matter air pollution -- commonly known as soot -- allowable in the nation’s air.
The rule would prevent as many as 4,500 premature deaths and 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms, an Environmental Protection Agency study found. Those health benefits could translate into as much as $46 billion in savings by 2032, the agency said.
The Trump administration may seek to undo the rule as part of wider regulatory cuts, Gerrard said. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to cut environmental regulations in an effort to ease the burden on businesses, but he did not mention this specific rule. Trump rolled back nearly 100 environmental regulations during his first term, including rules governing clean air, a New York Times analysis found.
Darren Riley, co-founder of an air-quality data startup called JustAir, who was diagnosed with asthma six years ago, said air safety should transcend party politics.
“We should take whatever precautions and procedures necessary to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink as a right to life,” Riley told ABC News.
Workplace safety marks another focus of federal regulation that could draw scrutiny from the Trump administration.
In July, the Biden administration formally proposed a heat-safety rule that would require workplaces with elevated heat risks to provide adequate water, rest breaks and control of indoor temperature.
Shae Parker suffered from dizziness and nausea during bouts of heat exhaustion while working this summer at a Speedway gas station in Columbia, South Carolina, she told ABC News. One year prior, record heat in the area caused similar symptoms during Parker’s shifts at Waffle House, but management failed to provide adequate air conditioning, she said.
Parker has traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the heat safety rule, and she worries that the Trump administration may set aside the regulation.
“Trump really needs to set the heat standard, and if he doesn’t, it’s like he doesn’t care about the country,” Parker said. “He needs to take our lives seriously.”
Waffle House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did 7-11, the parent company of Speedway.
Over three decades ending in the early 2020s, nearly 1,000 workers in the U.S. died from excessive heat exposure, amounting to about 34 deaths per year, an EPA study in June found.
The proposed regulation is in the midst of a public comment period as part of the rule-making process. That phase ends in December, leaving little time for finalization and implementation of the measure before Trump takes office. The Trump administration may very well abandon the rule, experts told ABC News.
“Workers will be on their own when it comes to heat,” Debbie Berkowitz, a former official in the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration under then-President Barack Obama, told ABC News.
For his part, Musk previously said DOGE would incorporate feedback from everyday people about which regulations it would recommend cutting. “Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!” Musk said in a post on X earlier this month.
Musk has also said that the nation’s worsening debt will force an increased portion of U.S. tax payments to go to interest payments on such borrowing, rather than to government services.
William Buzbee, a professor of administrative law at Georgetown University who focuses on environmental regulation, said the outcome of Musk’s efforts remains highly unclear. But he will likely face legal pushback as well as backlash from people who would be impacted by the potential rollback of a given regulation.
“The bottom line is, yes, the Trump administration is quite clearly planning to go in a deregulatory direction,” Buzbee said. “It won’t be easy.”
