The Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has wrought havoc on the federal government, diminishing its ability to perform essential work—like administering Social Security benefits for retirees, weather forecasting to predict tornadoes, and environmental pollution cleanup—while creating new inefficiencies and increased public costs. Now, many Republican governors and state lawmakers are demonstrating their loyalty to the Trump administration by setting up state-level versions of DOGE.

Despite the novel branding, these initiatives are part of the longstanding right-wing mission to capture and consolidate government in service of the wealthy. In fact, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s roadmap for deconstructing the federal government—which the Trump administration has followed almost to a T—is rooted in decades of state-level efforts to weaken democracy, suppress workers’ rights, and deepen inequality.

At least 26 states across the country have launched DOGE-style efforts purportedly related to “government efficiency” through legislation, executive action, or the creation of new legislative committees. While these initiatives vary, they all use disingenuous calls to “root out inefficiency” and “cut wasteful spending” as a smokescreen for the same right-wing agenda many conservative state lawmakers and their allies have pursued for decades: consolidating power in the hands of a minimally accountable executive, attacking public-sector workers, and cutting public services in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy.

Examples of state DOGE efforts share these themes:

1. Restructuring government by weakening state agencies and consolidating executive branch power
2. Handing government authority over to businesses, the wealthy, and partisan allies
3. Creating inefficiencies and performatively rebranding existing work
4. Undermining efforts to address racial discrimination, poverty, and inequality
5. Proffering unaccountable AI tools to privatize and shrink government

The core goal of federal and state-level DOGE efforts is to eliminate any obstacle to the far-right vision of government led by and for the wealthy at the expense of the public good. Efforts to weaken the public sector and consolidate and insulate state power are viewed as a necessary first step toward this vision.

Figure A provides an inexhaustive illustration of state DOGE activity across the country.

Restructuring government by weakening state agencies and consolidating executive power

Several states have proposed DOGE-labelled legislation that will radically restructure government in favor of governors and their appointees at the expense of career civil servants. Such efforts have also targeted the independence, authority, and staffing of state agencies. For example, a joint resolution for a 2026 constitutional amendment would create a new cabinet-level position in state government (the Florida Commissioner of Government Efficiency) and would eliminate the position of the Florida Auditor General—who is appointed by the state legislature—and the Office of Lieutenant Governor. A Georgia bill will require state agencies to review all rules and regulations every four years and report on their economic impact. And a bill related to judicial review in Missouri would block the courts from deferring to a state agency’s interpretation of rules and statutes and require the courts to make judgments in favor of an interpretation that “limits state agency power.” Florida, Texas, and West Virginia have proposed eliminating or reducing state agencies, while bills in Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma seek to restrict the rulemaking authority of such agencies.

Some states are advancing such efforts through state Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Acts, mirroring the federal REINS Act, a Republican-led measure that passed the House in 2023. These bills are designed to siphon power from agency regulators and further consolidate it with conservative-led legislatures.1 Contrary to the stated purpose of DOGE, these bills decrease efficiency by requiring legislators—who may not have the relevant knowledge or expertise—to review those regulations before they are implemented. Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, and Kansas have enacted state-level REINS Acts. Arizona and Oklahoma have introduced REINS-style legislation this session. These bills threaten the longstanding rulemaking authority of state agencies that is enshrined in state constitutions in acknowledgement of the expertise of civil servants.

DOGE-inspired bills also propose significant cuts to state workforces and threaten to weaken workplace protections for state employees. North Carolina Republicans have introduced a bill that would require state agencies to justify their existence in order for the auditor to recommend state agencies and positions for elimination. The bill suggests that high vacancy rates could lead to massive state workforce reductions, even though many of the positions are vacant due to low pay. And a new report by the Oklahoma DOGE lays out a process to cut state agencies and the public-sector workforce below 2019 levels. This plan is a continuation of the governor’s agenda since taking office in 2019. Governor Stitt campaigned on executive branch consolidation and within the first two years of his governorship, he assumed direct control over five state agencies.

Iowa completed a similar restructuring plan in 2023 through a sweeping legislative proposal that eliminated hundreds of government positions, moved previously independent offices under the authority of the governor, and greatly expanded the governor’s power. An early 2025 report by the right-wing Common Sense Institute titled “Iowa’s DOGE” lauded the reorganization as a success because the governor’s cuts to state agencies freed up revenue used to enact tax cuts for the wealthy.

Two DOGE-inspired bills in West Virginia propose eliminating civil service protections at two state agencies. This mirrors similar proposals at the federal level. One of Trump’s first executive orders, repeatedly called for in Project 2025, was to reinstate Schedule F, which effectively strips many career civil servants of employment protections. And more recently, Trump signed an executive order to strip federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.

As these examples show, state DOGE offices are using various means to wrest power from state agencies. Gutting the workforce, weakening state agency independence, and transferring agency authority to the legislature or the governor’s mansion are all tactics for expanding and insulating the governor’s power.

Handing over government authority to businesses, the wealthy, and partisan allies

State DOGE activities have also sought to install business owners and wealthy, partisan allies of state leaders into positions in which they are unaccountable to the public. In announcing Iowa’s new DOGE office, Governor Reynolds boasted about her efforts over the past three years to eliminate “burdensome regulations” and cut 21 agencies from her cabinet. The state’s DOGE office is made up of Iowa business leaders and led by the general counsel at the Iowa-based farm equipment manufacturing company, Sukup Manufacturing Co. This company has notably been charged with multiple federal workplace health and safety violations over the past decade, including for failing to submit a timely injury report for a 2019 incident in which a worker was injured severely enough to be hospitalized.

Like Elon Musk’s unelected role in the Trump administration, Republican governors in Louisiana and Oklahoma have appointed allies to unelected offices to spearhead DOGE efforts in their states. Because these advisor positions are appointed by the governor and unpaid, state legislatures have little authority—assuming they would want to use it—to provide a check on any actions by these offices.

In an executive order creating Oklahoma’s DOGE office, the governor designated Marc Nuttle, a businessman and former GOP political operative, to lead the office. Nuttle was the “chief strategist” behind Oklahoma’s 2001 so-called right-to-work referendum—a policy designed to disempower workers and lower wages (and contrary to proponents’ claims did not bolster job growth in the state). The executive order empowered Nuttle to lead efforts of a newly formed agency to study the state budget.

In North Carolina, lawmakers tapped to lead the state DOGE office include two partisan appointees with a profound conflict of interest for a task force charged with cleaning up government. One of the chairs, Rep. Kidwell, was the lead sponsor of a bill to block the state attorney general from opposing President Trump’s executive orders. He also owns a franchise of a company that has lobbied to make tax filing more expensive for taxpayers and is affiliated with a far-right militia group. The other chair of the DOGE office, Rep. Torbett, has faced multiple ethics complaints over his use of taxpayer funds. The state already had a watchdog agency to investigate fraud within government, but all 14 nonpartisan members of that agency were replaced with partisan appointments and granted expansive new powers. The leader of the former watchdog agency believed legislative leadership dissolved the nonpartisan agency because they did not have direct control over it.

Creating new inefficiencies and performatively rebranding existing work

Because much of the DOGE effort in Republican-led states have been ongoing for decades, several states that have set up DOGE offices have simply rebranded offices that already existed. In the words of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, state leaders have been “doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing.” Florida also already had a task force set up in 2007 to “improve governmental operations and reduce costs.”

State DOGE offices have been making dubious claims about the “savings” they’ve achieved, echoing the federal DOGE, which has dishonestly and incorrectly boasted about “saving” billions of taxpayer dollars by eliminating federal grants that had never been spent, cancelling contracts already ended, illegally impounding funds, or simply reporting erroneous figures. For instance, Florida announced that its state DOGE office had “saved” the federal government $900 million, but this money was unspent federal funds for refugee resettlement and carbon emissions reduction that the state had rejected long prior to the state DOGE office’s creation.

Oklahoma DOGE similarly announced “savings” in their initial report. Although the state boasted that DOGE-OK identified $157 million in savings, these were federal dollars recommended to be returned to the state. These dollars were intended to support health care, a particular need in the state as it battles rising measles and whooping cough rates. The nonpartisan Oklahoma Policy Institute has sharply criticized DOGE-OK’s actions, noting that “Oklahoma already ranks among the worst in health outcomes.” The existence of DOGE-OK is itself duplicative since the Office of the State Auditor and Inspector is constitutionally mandated to “examine the state and all county treasurers’ books, accounts, and cash on hand, stipulating that [the office] shall perform other duties as may be prescribed by law.” Similar to DOGE-OK, the auditor reviews staffing levels, assesses state spending, and issues public reports to promote transparency. In further duplication, DOGE-OK has used public resources to create a website, even though the state auditor website already exists.

Alabama also had DOGE efforts that predated the federal implementation. The state right-wing think tank started a DOGE program in 2024 that itemized the state general fund spending which failed to find “inefficiencies” (revenues still outpaced expenditures for most years).

South Carolina’s so-called efficiency efforts date back to 1948, when the South Carolina State Reorganization Commission was established to provide the governor a tool to fast-track recommendations in the legislature. In 2003, they also created the Governor’s Commission on Management, Accountability, and Performance intended to “reduce costs” and “provide services in a more business-like fashion,” among other goals. These initiatives, as well as several other private- and public-sector audits, did result in fewer state agencies; but most of the audit recommendations were not accepted and each commission has repeated similar recommendations. Nevertheless, South Carolina lawmakers have introduced legislation to set up yet another DOGE-style commission. SC DOGE was established in response to the latest “efficiency” trend but has the same goals as the initial commission, indicating that these efforts have been largely unproductive for three-quarters of a century.

Weakening efforts to address racial discrimination, poverty, and inequality

Other state DOGE activities have focused on implementing a longstanding right-wing agenda to undo progress on racial and gender discrimination, poverty, and inequality, and advance policies that serve the wealthy and corporations.

For example, several state DOGE offices, in an expression of fealty to the Trump administration, have vowed to eliminate any commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in state government. In North Carolina, at a House Oversight Committee hearing called to evaluate whether agencies are “effective and efficient,” two newly elected Republicans vowed to get rid of DEI efforts within the offices of the state Treasurer and Auditor. In Wisconsin, the state’s new Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency requested information from municipal and county governments about DEI-related initiatives, which will require large cities like Milwaukee to go through “literally hundreds of grants” to identify DEI efforts.

Bills in Arizona and Kansas attack social safety net programs by overwhelming agencies with administrative burdens. The Arizona bill, advertised as a bill to “prevent waste, fraud, and abuse,” would require a state agency to verify eligibility for SNAP every single month. The Kansas bill, sponsored by the state’s Committee on Government Efficiency, would require state agencies to receive legislative approval before expanding or increasing costs associated with any public assistance program. The immediate effect of the bills will be to force more work upon state agencies with the same or fewer resources and limit their ability to function with independence. But their ultimate goal—and one that long predates DOGE—is to undermine the social safety net by curbing access and weakening the agencies that administer them. Then, as with federal Republican congressional proposals, the “savings” can be used to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

States are now using their new DOGE offices to call for and legitimize regressive tax policies. In his speech unveiling Oklahoma’s DOGE office, Governor Stitt called for a reduction in the state’s personal income tax and corporate tax rate, both of which would make Oklahoma’s tax code more unequal. Similarly, at a DOGE presser, Florida’s governor floated the idea of eliminating property taxes—the revenue source for half of public school funding—and potentially replacing them with increased sales taxes (which disproportionately impact low-income households). Both of these states’ penchant for cutting taxes that benefit the wealthy is longstanding: Oklahoma lawmakers have cut the personal income tax nine times in the past two decades, and Florida, the state with the most unequal tax system in the nation, repealed a major source of property tax revenue back in 2006.

Proffering unaccountable AI tools to privatize and shrink government

Many state DOGE offices have also promised to leverage artificial intelligence to “boost efficiency,” but recent actions suggest the underlying agenda is to usurp the investigatory authority of civil servants and replace it with untested technological tools that lack accountability. For example, a North Carolina bill proposes that the state auditor use AI to inform state agency workforce cuts and a South Carolina task force that predates the state DOGE office argued in favor of replacing 40% of public-sector employees with AI bots. Florida’s DOGE team recently announced that it will be using “advanced technology to identify, review, and report on unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments.” But a village manager in Palm Beach County responded that this work is already conducted every year by the county auditor. The prospect of using AI to determine high-stakes outcomes like budget cuts may be unconstitutional.

Past efforts to privatize the work of the public sector in administering public benefits, often using technological tools, have been disastrous. In 2006, after the state of Indiana entered a $1.2 billion contract with tech companies to determine social safety net benefits eligibility remotely, more than a million residents were denied access to food stamps, cash assistance, and Medicaid amid an ongoing recession (a 54% increase in denials over the previous three years). Indiana’s governor was forced to admit the program was a failure and canceled the state’s contract with IBM. In response, IBM sued the state for breach of contract and was eventually awarded $52 million in damages.

In Florida in 2004, the state reduced benefits administrators by 40% and replaced them with online questionnaires administered by community partners that were neither trained nor funded to determine benefits eligibility. In Texas in 2005, the state entered a $900 million contract with Accenture to computerize its process for determining children’s health insurance eligibility. The program, which cost taxpayers $244 million, wrongly terminated Medicaid coverage for 6,000 children. And in 2015, Iowa’s Medicaid privatization resulted in an 891% increase in incorrect coverage denials, and the companies charged with administering the privatized program violated the contract as well as state and federal law.

DOGE: new name, same agenda to undermine government

In its efforts to dismantle government and further Trump’s agenda, the federal DOGE has illegally fired federal workers and halted funding, while showing utter contempt for privacy and data security as they have deployed AI tools to make high-risk decisions about federal staffing and functions. The lack of transparency, accountability, worker voice, and public input in DOGE’s actions are antithetical to the proper functioning of a democratic government. Similarly, DOGE-branded efforts at the state level are not about promoting efficiency. State policymaking over the past several decades shows that DOGE’s activities at both the federal and state levels are merely a rebranding of conservatives’ long-running project to enact a policy agenda that prioritizes business and the wealthy at the expense of working people. Efforts to dismantle government and suppress opposition to their agenda are a necessary first step in that project.

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1. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron Doctrine, similarly shifts authority away from experts at federal agencies to the courts—another longstanding goal of conservatives.