Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are looking to conduct a “massive downsizing” of the federal government.

Legislative authorities can expire and continue to receive appropriations—a law of Congress that provides an agency with budget authority—subject to congressional reauthorization. Among those expired appropriations is the Veteran's Health Care Eligibility Act, which amounted to $119 billion in government spending for 2024.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are set to take the reins of the brand new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) under President-elect Trump — a panel with bold ambitions of slashing government costs and restructuring federal agencies.