OPINION:
President-elect Donald Trump is to return to Washington with the distinct advantage of having previously served in the Oval Office. He is wiser. Not given to excuses and apologies, he has been candid concerning his choices for Cabinet and agency positions in his first term.
Mr. Trump now knows that he must pick people who are not only competent but also willing to work earnestly to implement his policies. He has given much thought to filling the administration’s ranks to ensure that it will govern effectively and expeditiously to implement his promises during his historic political comeback and resounding victory.
His initial selection of Susie Wiles, a longtime GOP operative, as his chief of staff is an excellent choice. The chief of staff must be trustworthy, keenly focused on the president’s agenda and able to keep Cabinet and agencies in line. His other selections will be high-quality ones because he established a transition team before his reelection to evaluate candidates. But more is needed.
Mr. Trump wants to address the border, tax reform and energy production quickly. To do so, he should expeditiously reform a federal government populated by unelected bureaucrats administering bloated departments and agencies that resist conservative reform.
Here is what must be done:
First, Mr. Trump should direct his Cabinet departments that their first priority should be to dismiss or reassign any person in the government who will work to disable or delay his governing agenda. In his first term, ensconced bureaucrats hindered his efforts, labeling themselves “the resistance.” Moreover, many were politically and personally hostile to his reforms. They put their bias above their duty to execute his plan.
This term, Cabinet and agency leaders must clean house and rid the government of naysayers and obstructionists. To do otherwise will undermine the president’s agenda.
Second, the federal government must be restructured and repositioned. That includes relocating major governmental agencies across the nation. Aside from the departments of State, Defense, Treasury and Justice, major federal government departments and agencies are capable of operating anywhere in the nation. Modern technology obviates the need for them to reside on the banks of the Potomac.
Plant the Department of Agriculture in Iowa closer to the nation’s breadbasket. The Department of the Interior can find a home in Colorado. Put the Department of Health and Human Services beside the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The Department of Transportation can move to Indianapolis near the junction of many interstate highways. Dispatch the Department of Labor to Detroit, which is closer to the American automobile industry.
Move the Department of Energy to Houston, where the oil and natural gas industries thrive. Establish the Department of Commerce near Wall Street in New York. And position the Department of Homeland Security in Kansas City, Missouri, at the center of the homeland.
Finally, disband the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development. These functions are the specific responsibility of the several states that are far more capable of handling these affairs than bureaucrats in Washington.
Of course, Congress’ embedded stakeholders and big spenders will howl at the potential loss of influence over relocated departments. In the District, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia, some government employees will not want to relocate and consequently will need to seek alternative employment. Others will happily leave an expensive metropolitan area to live more affordably elsewhere.
Moreover, relocating the federal leviathan will likely result in the recruitment of fresh faces and younger people who want to serve a government committed to innovation. Indeed, dispersing the government will create opportunities to rethink and reform bloated and staid bureaucracies.
Imagine an Energy Department eager to develop national resources independently of foreign sources. Suppose we had a Department of Health and Human Services collocated with innovative health centers at sites where advances in health care flourish. Consider the insight that could occur with a Department of Commerce at the center of world commerce.
This is a time-sensitive opportunity for Mr. Trump. He will have the Senate and the House. Suppose he strikes while the iron is hot. In that case, he will be able to forge a new reality to rejuvenate an obdurate bureaucracy led by liberal satraps unresponsive to the president’s agenda.
In the same way that the invasive kudzu vine strangles other plants, deep-rooted bureaucrats will choke on Mr. Trump’s efforts to reform the government. The only way to deal with kudzu is to uproot it, not trim the leaves around the edges of the vine.
Dispersing the federal government would provide distinct opportunities to reduce a bloated workforce, sharpen its focus and foster innovation. Do it now or never.
• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired Army colonel and combat veteran (1973-2001) and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2002-2018). He is the author of “Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War” (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) and “Yanks in Blue Berets: American UN Peacekeepers in the Middle East” (UPK, 2023).
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