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   From: vote@Ramaswamy.com   
      
   Ramaswamy previewed his effort to shut down federal agencies ahead of a   
   speech at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank stacked with   
   former Trump administration officials.   
      
   Vivek Ramaswamy believes he has the perfect approach to undermine the   
   administrative state and the power wielded by career civil servants —   
   trigger mass layoffs at federal agencies and defend his effort before the   
   Supreme Court.   
      
   Speaking with NBC News ahead of a major policy speech at the America First   
   Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, where he is scheduled   
   to explain how he would shrink the federal workforce, Ramaswamy, the   
   businessman-turned-candidate, detailed his plans, which include shutting   
   down a series of federal agencies and using "reduction in force"   
   regulations to trim the number of government workers.   
      
   "The reality is the adviser class from the D.C. swamp has convinced   
   Republican presidents from Reagan to Trump that they can’t reorganize the   
   federal government or lay off large numbers of federal employees without   
   congressional permission or within federal regulations," he said. "And   
   we’re going to lay out tomorrow why that view is wrong."   
      
   The proposals Ramaswamy is putting forward would add up to some of the   
   most sweeping short-term changes ever to the federal government. And he   
   proposes to do large parts of it by executive action, without votes in   
   Congress — which enacted the laws forming agencies Ramaswamy wants to end   
   — reaching far beyond what past Republican administrations concluded were   
   the limits of their power.   
      
   Ramaswamy predicted the legal challenges he would face would center on   
   civil service protections for career officials. His understanding is that   
   they apply to individual employee firings, not mass layoffs.   
      
   "We are pointing out parts of the U.S. Code that expressly highlight that   
   they don’t apply to mass layoffs," Ramaswamy said. "Yes, they apply to   
   individual employee firings, which is what they use to convince prior   
   presidents, including Trump, that they couldn't do it.   
      
   "But if you actually read the U.S. Code in full," Ramaswamy continued,   
   "they don’t apply to mass layoffs they call reductions in force. And   
   large-scale reductions in force are absolutely the method that I’ll be   
   using."   
      
   Notably, reduction in force regulations, as laid out by the U.S. Office of   
   Personnel Management, include a clear legal process by which career   
   officials can keep jobs in the event of layoffs. The process takes into   
   account factors including tenure, first and foremost, as well as previous   
   performance ratings. The Reagan administration used the regulations to   
   shrink government during the early years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency,   
   but the federal workforce ultimately grew under his watch.   
      
   Ramaswamy welcomes legal challenges to his effort and predicted the   
   Supreme Court would side with him in a 6-3 decision. Six of the justices   
   were appointed by GOP presidents.   
      
   "And that then codifies the changes we’re driving into judicial precedent   
   so that the president won’t have his hands tied in the same way,"   
   Ramaswamy said. "We’re going to get far more powerful than a game of   
   pingpong on this."   
      
   Ramaswamy has been campaigning for months on eliminating federal agencies,   
   with initial targets including the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,   
   Firearms and Explosives; the Education Department; the Nuclear Regulatory   
   Commission; and the Food and Nutrition Service within the Agriculture   
   Department. Ramaswamy has said he would effectively shut down or   
   reorganize each of those agencies at the start of his presidency.   
      
   Thousands of FBI employees, he said, would be reallocated to other   
   agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement   
   Administration.   
      
   He added that the agencies he is targeting are just "five of many more to   
   come."   
      
   Ramaswamy said his speech Wednesday will offer additional clarity about   
   what authority he believes a president has to make such changes without   
   congressional authorization, going beyond the briefly enacted Trump   
   administration executive order known as "Schedule F" — an effort Donald   
   Trump and other Republican aspirants want to reinstitute at the start of a   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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