Elon Musk vowed mass headcount reductions in the federal government.

That's where we're starting The Seven from the Washington Post.

I'm Hannah Jewell.

It's Thursday, November 21st.

Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories.

President-elect Donald Trump has asked the entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy to oversee spending cuts when he takes office.

Their new commission is known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

And in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, they laid out their most detailed plans yet for the project. The two men said they want to slash federal regulations,

cut government spending, and significantly reduce the number of federal employees. They said

that having fewer regulations will require fewer workers. They also said their work will rely on what they

called advanced technology. That could be a reference to artificial intelligence. But Musk and

Ramoswamy's essay left many details unclear. And some budget experts say their ideas demonstrate

a misunderstanding of how the government works. Critics have also questioned how much money their ideas would a misunderstanding of how the government works.

Critics have also questioned how much money their ideas would actually save the government.

Number two. A House panel was told that Matt Gates paid two women $10,000 in part for sex.

Gates is Trump's pick for Attorney General, but his selection has proven to be very controversial.

That's in part because before he resigned as a congressman, he had been under investigation by the House over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Yesterday, the House Ethics Panel declined to release its report on Gates.

But the Post reported that House investigators obtained records

showing that Gates paid more than $10,000 to two women.

They said some payments made between 2017 and 2019 were for sex.

The news piles more scrutiny on Gates.

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