House Speaker Mike Johnson recently laid out a vision for the federal government that’s likely to make D.C. bureaucrats sweat. Johnson has an ambitious plan, aimed squarely at slashing the size of the government and scattering its offices across the heartland if Republicans pull off a big win. This vision includes not only cutting down the federal workforce but physically uprooting thousands of government jobs from Washington, D.C., and relocating them to middle America—a proposal that, to say the least, won’t go down easily with the Beltway crowd.
In an interview with Just the News, Johnson outlined his plan to decentralize federal agencies, shifting personnel and resources from the swamp to places where real Americans live, away from the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups. He explained that Republicans are done with the faceless, untouchable federal bureaucracy. Johnson believes if these agencies were spread out across northern Kansas, or perhaps southwest New Mexico, many career bureaucrats wouldn’t be too keen on relocating. In his words, “They love the swamp,” and it’s likely they’d prefer to stay in D.C., even if that means turning in their government jobs for lobbying gigs.
According to Johnson, this mass migration of federal jobs would be the first step in a total government reboot. Empty offices could lead to smaller agencies, reducing the bloated budget, all while paving the way for what he calls a “business reorganization” of federal operations. In place of the nameless bureaucrats of yesteryear, Johnson envisions teams of limited-government conservatives, vetted and ready, filling those spots. These are experts with an “America First” mindset, not the usual paper-pushing bureaucrats, but people with a vision to make government more efficient and less intrusive.
Johnson’s remarks, the boldest he’s made on trimming the federal fat, signal a readiness to torch the regulatory state as we know it. His approach lines up perfectly with a recent Supreme Court ruling that curtailed federal agencies’ power to interpret regulations on their own terms, essentially scrapping the old “Chevron doctrine.” Now, federal agencies are limited to enforcing laws passed by Congress, a shift Johnson sees as a golden opportunity to bring power back to the legislative branch.
With what he calls a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to recalibrate the government’s role, Johnson believes the timing couldn’t be better. He describes the current moment as ripe for restoring congressional authority over runaway federal agencies. For Johnson, this vision is about more than just cutting budgets; it’s about reshaping the government to put citizens—not bureaucrats—in charge, a move he sees as long overdue and full of promise for the future.
