{"id":41744,"date":"2025-05-02T05:15:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41744"},"modified":"2025-05-02T05:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:16:20","slug":"state-versions-of-doge-take-more-modest-approaches-than-elon-musks-shock-and-awe-moves-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41744","title":{"rendered":"State versions of DOGE take more modest approaches than Elon Musk’s shock-and-awe moves in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

States are continuing to roll out their own versions of the Department of Government Efficiency<\/a>, the outside advisory commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that President Donald Trump tasked with cutting federal spending and staffing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the officials who launched the bodies, which take different forms in different states, say they\u2019ve wanted to have the impact of Trump\u2019s DOGE, with some explicitly comparing<\/a> them to the federal commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while Musk\u2019s slash-and-burn approach has caused major disruptions in Washington and across the country, the more than 20 state-level DOGE organizations that have been rolled out since Trump\u2019s federal launch have so far taken a far lighter touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many states with such organizations, that\u2019s a product of the fact that they don’t have the same layers of bureaucracy as the federal government, while for others, it\u2019s due more to the fact that their DOGE-styled bodies are advisory in nature. Many of the state DOGE bodies are looking into state governments that have been under unified Republican control for multiple terms or even decades, unlike the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more modest,\u201d said Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who in February signed an executive order to create a \u201cDivision of Government Efficiency\u201d dubbed DOGE-OK. His office said at the time that it was focused on eliminating wasteful government spending and improving efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the huge bureaucracies to cut that the federal government did,\u201d Cave added. \u201cThere\u2019s just not as much to be wildly aggressive about. You\u2019re not gonna have a USAID<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as Musk has signaled that his forceful role at DOGE will soon be ebbing<\/a>, efforts are just ramping up in many of the states that have created agencies, committees, task forces, bills and other mechanisms to streamline government regulations or spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas joined that list most recently, after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed\u2002a bill in April\u2002<\/a>creating a permanent state agency \u2014 the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office \u2014 dedicated to streamlining government and spending. The law doesn\u2019t go into effect until Sept. 1, and his administration has said there is no timeline yet for when the new office will open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the bill-signing event, Abbott said Musk\u2019s DOGE helped \u201ccrystallize\u201d the framework for what the Texas agency would do \u2014 while also acknowledging that the version would, unlike the federal one, focus predominantly on slashing state government regulations, as part of a broader push to make Texas even friendlier to businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That softer touch has largely been the case in other state-level DOGE apparatuses, as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Oklahoma, Cave said that two months after its launch, one of the biggest savings DOGE-OK has made was a $200,000 cut after it identified the existence of \u201chundreds\u201d of redundant fax machines across the state government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the one exception in which a state DOGE is pursuing matters more aggressively is in Florida, where the state\u2019s organization, created via executive order by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, is actively reviewing grants and faculty research at public universities in the state<\/a>, identifying prospective spending cuts and reforms in local governments and seeking to return \u201cunnecessary federal grant funding\u201d<\/a> to Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The version of DOGE launched by DeSantis, who has repeatedly taken aim<\/a> at public higher education in Florida<\/a>, has already begun requesting documents and information from public universities and colleges in the state, spokesperson Brian Wright said in an email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency, Wright said, has also begun reviewing \u201cthe financial prudence\u201d of all 67 counties and 411 municipalities in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, New Hampshire\u2019s Commission on Government Efficiency, created in January via executive order from GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte, has so far met a handful times to discuss cost-saving maneuvers\u2002<\/a>such as selling state-owned property and reducing certain equipment purchases. The 15-member body, which comprises legislative leaders and local business leaders, can only submit recommendations to Ayotte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its members have been outspoken in distancing themselves from Musk and his approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not Elon Musk,\u201d GOP former Gov. Craig Benson, a member of the commission, said at a recent meeting of the group<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to do things the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has stated that her DOGE Task Force\u2019s goals include reducing the cost of government and improving effectiveness and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the body has held only one meeting, and it isn\u2019t scheduled to submit its recommendations to Reynolds’ office for five more months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iowa Democrats have nevertheless complained that the body is operating opaquely. Iowa state Rep. Megan Srinivas said on a call with reporters this week that the force is acting with \u201ca lack of transparency around\u201d any proposed changes in state government. A Reynolds spokesperson didn\u2019t respond to questions about the task force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Missouri,\u2002a freshly formed Republican-led legislative committee<\/a>, the Committee to Evaluate Efficiency in State Government, is reviewing at least 30 bills<\/a> that propose modest changes to various state boards<\/a>, state contracts<\/a> and state payroll formulas<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Kansas, the Republican-controlled state Senate\u2019s new Committee on Government Efficiency created a website on which residents could submit suggestions of where they wanted to see government waste cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It crashed following an explosion of submissions. The committee\u2019s Republican vice chair,\u2002state Sen. Michael Murphy, admitted,<\/a> \u201cAll we\u2019re going to be able to do in most cases is have a recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in several other states with divided governments, Republican-led legislatures have since the start of the year launched state legislative DOGE committees. Those bodies wield even less power, since Democratic governors can block their efforts, but they have proven useful as platforms for investigations, messaging and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Wisconsin, state Assembly Republicans launched a Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency Committee. Lawmakers quizzed state agency heads and the head of the state\u2019s university system on spending and alleged waste at its first meeting in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Republican member of the committee requested information from the state\u2019s biggest cities and all 72 of its counties regarding diversity, equity and inclusion spending in local government. The chair, GOP state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, said that the body\u2019s primary goal will be to make sure state government employees no longer work remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nedweski said that the initial burst of attention surrounding Trump\u2019s DOGE certainly fueled the explosion of imitations in state capitals, including in Wisconsin, but that by nature, most state-level versions were going to have to operate more deliberately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConceptually, the idea is something people want. Fiscal conservatism has become cool again,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cWhether you like the federal DOGE or not, it\u2019s getting a lot of attention because people want to save money and want to see if there\u2019s waste somewhere \u2014 and that it\u2019s being addressed and reduced.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the state level,\u201d Nedweski added, \u201cwe have restrictions \u2014 we cannot bulldoze into an agency and slash and burn, because we don\u2019t have that authority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee, which has no counterpart in the state Senate, can only make recommendations to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans have this year launched legislative committees with similar dynamics and constraints in Arizona and North Carolina, which also have Democratic governors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arizona, conservative lawmakers acknowledged that the path to DOGE-like reforms would have to come through legislation passed by both chambers and signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. In North Carolina, the state House committee has not yet<\/a> issued any recommendations, proposed cuts or crafted any legislation. But it\u2019s not the only suggested way circulating to eliminate alleged waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, proposed in March a new \u201cImpact Center,\u201d housed in his Office of State Budget and Management that would oversee efforts to make government run efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he has said his approach would \u201cuse<\/a> a scalpel, not a chainsaw.\u201d The statement refers to an appearance by Musk at a conservative political conference in February, where he wielded a chainsaw to symbolize his government cuts.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

States are continuing to roll out their own versions of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that President Donald Trump tasked with cutting federal spending and staffing. Many of the officials who launched the bodies, which take different forms in different states, say they\u2019ve wanted to have the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1410,7817,1330,1230],"class_list":["post-41744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-cuts","tag-federal-spending","tag-musk","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41746,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41744\/revisions\/41746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}