REUTERS/Mike Segar
- Marc Andreessen said DOGE will prioritize return-to-office for federal workers in Washington, DC.Andreessen criticized remote work, citing low occupancy rates in federal buildings.DOGE, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to cut government spending and increase efficiency.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said pushing a return-to-office policy for government staff in the "ghost town" of Washington, DC, is a top priority for DOGE.
Referring to himself as the "unpaid intern" at the Department of Government Efficiency, the Silicon Valley billionaire and a cofounder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz described the number of federal employees working remotely as a problem in an interview with the Hoover Institution earlier this week.
DOGE is a newly formed unofficial government department that President-elect Donald Trump created to cut federal government spending. Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to lead the agency.
While Andreessen has no formal position, he was involved in the early planning of DOGE.
"The Washington, DC federal government complex is basically a ghost town," he said, adding that these buildings have an average 25% occupancy rate. A 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office found that the offices of 17 agencies were at 25% capacity or less.
A September 2024 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget said government agencies should aim for occupancy of 60%
"The security agencies are still full-time, the other agencies are not," Andreessen alleged.
He said that federal workers have unionized in some government agencies, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they struck agreements allowing them not to return to the office.
Andreessen claimed that in "extreme cases," federal agencies allow working in the office for just one day a month, and some of their employees are pairing their workplace days by showing up for two days every two months.
"You ask any CEO in corporate America, like how is this whole thing going, what are your employees doing," he said, "every CEO will tell you: 'What on earth is happening? Are these people working?'"
Andreessen continued by asking if Trump may have the legal authority as president to order people back to the office.
"Does it count to be an employee of the federal government if you're not in the office?" He asked.
