It’s raining cats and DOGEs as Republican-led states are pushing for copycat versions of the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency.
President Donald Trump ordered the creation of DOGE on his first day in the White House. With world’s richest Elon Musk at the helm, the “outside of government” agency has its sights set on reducing federal funds for DEI programs, dismantling federal agencies, and terminating digital modernization projects.
In the weeks since its creation, some governors have launched new departments that mimic Musk’s cost-cutting agency while state legislatures have backed measures to establish them.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt launched the Division of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE-OK. New Hampshire announced the creation of her state’s offshoot: COGE.
"We are going to have to look to find better ways to do things with fewer dollars," Governor Kelly Ayotte said last month in her inaugural address. "Because I know nothing is harder than getting politicians to not spend money, today I am announcing the creation of the Commission on Government Efficiency, or as I like to call it – the ‘COGE.’"
Georgia’s Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, who is sponsoring a bill that proposes agencies consider more cost-effective alternatives every four years.
“What we’re seeing with the Trump administration doing right with Elon Musk is exactly what we need to do at every level of government around the country,” Gooch told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Similarly in Texas, lawmakers are hoping to establish a 13-member Delivery of Government Efficiency, which aims to eliminate “inefficiencies” within state agencies, Fox7 Austin reported. Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick listed the DOGE bill among his top priorities for the legislative session.
Legislators in South Carolina have introduced measures to create the Commission on Fiscal Restraint and Government Efficiency. “We don’t have an Elon Musk in South Carolina, but it’ll be similar to what’s going on in Washington,” the bill’s House sponsor, Majority Leader Davey Hiott, told the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
In Missouri, lawmakers established the Government Efficiency Committee to investigate where the state’s government could cut back. The committee’s chair even launched a portal for the public to “report any instances of government duplication, waste, or inefficiencies.”
Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Ashley Aune warned KFVS12 that the effort to find so-called inefficiencies could get political: “I think that what we’re going to likely see are folks identifying and targeting programs they simply don’t agree with politically.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds praised her home state’s small government and cost-cutting efforts that were in place before Musk’s agency was formed during a Congressional panel. Iowa has been "doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” she said, according to the Des Moines Register.
