Deep Dive: Understanding Federal Agencies
How do federal agencies work in practice? How have federal agencies contributed to government expansion, and what reforms could streamline their operations in the future?
When Elon, RFK Jr., and Vivek talk about an overgrown and ineffective federal bureaucracy, they are referring to the 400+ federal agencies that form the operational backbone of the U.S. federal government.
Why have federal agencies become a lightning rod for criticism?
First, federal agencies are the largest employer in the U.S., a larger employer than both Walmart and Amazon.
They also issue thousands of regulations annually, which far exceeds the number of laws passed by Congress during its biennial term.
Given that these regulations touch nearly every aspect of American life today and the vast majority of federal employees within the agencies are unelected, there have been calls to reform the federal government's agency system. In order to do that, we need to look at the problem from first principles.
This deep dive provides an insider's look into our federal agencies, focusing on understanding the issues from first principles. We will deduce and uncover the structural problems facing our federal agencies and propose some of the actions that the Department of Government Efficiency could take to solve these structural issues.
The following topics will be covered:
How our federal agencies work in practice
How our federal agencies create regulations
How our bureaucracy is an unintentional byproduct of our governing system
Why previous reforms have not addressed the core structural challenges
What actions the Department of Government Efficiency could take to address the core structural challenges
Our deep dives are designed to be read in one sitting, like a flip book. If we've done our job well, after 20-30 minutes of reading, you should be able to form a clear picture of how our government works in practice, the structural challenges facing our federal agencies, and the actions necessary to drive real change. We've also included a companion podcast, which we think introduces the deep dive well.
In a future deep dive, we will double-click into specific agencies and discuss how they work in practice, as well as their challenges, including the EPA, ED, FDA, and SEC. Let me know if there is a specific agency you want us to cover first.
We are also publishing our U.S. Voting deep dives in a few days. It serves as a companion piece to our election night livestream on 11/5/24. We are also going to break down how elections work, so you can make better sense of what is happening live with us.
Chamath