On Monday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” 2024 presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) argued for reducing the footprint of federal agencies inside Washington, D.C. “by at least 50%.” DeSantis also stated that if he’s elected, this will particularly be the case with the Department of Justice and the FBI by focusing more on local field offices.
Host Hugh Hewitt asked, “Now, Governor, the last job I had in the federal government was as the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. It is pretty freaking hard to fire anybody. It’s really hard to move anybody. The Merit System[s] Protection Board gets involved. It is not the military. How would you get control of this massive, sprawling federal bureaucracy, which has become actually two governments, one for the left, and one for the rest of us?”
DeSantis responded, “Well, I think the assertion of Article II power in ways that maybe have not been done, I think, needs to be done. I think this current Supreme Court would view some of the bureaucracy that you cited and those restrictions as potentially impinging on Article II authority to actually run the executive branch. And so, we will assert that. We will also reduce the footprint of all these agencies — but particularly DOJ and FBI — within D.C. by at least 50%. I think if you look at something like the FBI, you have a politicized culture that’s developed within Washington, D.C. at headquarters, and I think it’s totally toxic to the rule of law. And so, taking that and saying, we’re going to radically reduce that size, we’re going to do more on the field offices, I think, would be a big deal.”
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