ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
Utah lawmaker named DOGE co-chair, says colleagues are clamoring to join
Dec 11, 2024, 6:00 PM | Updated: 6:02 pm
FILE: Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, talks to members of the media as he waits for election results outside of the Governor’s Mansion in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. In December, Moore was named as a co-chair to the newly formed advisory board called DOGE. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
WASHINGTON — Congressional lawmakers are reportedly pretty excited about DOGE, a new advisory body in D.C.
DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, is part of President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to cut spending and shrink the size of the federal government. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead DOGE.
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“Members of Congress are really jumping on board to be a part of this potential initiative,” Rep. Blake Moore told KSL NewsRadio on Tuesday. Moore is a DOGE co-chair.
Moore’s position on the House Ways and Means Committee helped him get the DOGE position.
“The reason that I’m going to be able to lead part of this effort is because I’m on the Ways and Means and budget committees, and this is directly related to our deficit, national debt, spending, and all policy associated with this,” Moore said.
DOGE born from a new presidency
Moore said Trump’s election has energized lawmakers who feel that now is the time for a momentous change.
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“We didn’t have a president that was interested in addressing this issue holistically,” Moore said. And he defined other reasons that U.S. government efficiency has been on the back burner.
“You don’t have consensus among members of Congress, or you don’t have the right makeup of the majorities,” he said.
Moore described a meeting he attended last week with Ramaswamy and Musk as very exciting, namely because he said they seemed interested in input from Moore’s colleagues.
Can a country be run like a business?
Elon Musk runs Tesla and has run other successful businesses. Vivek Ramaswamy founded the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences as well as an investment firm. Neither has worked in U.S. government.
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How will this work? How will they work?
“There is a difference between the public and the private sector,” Moore said. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t be based on outcomes and effectiveness and just running things more efficiently.”
And again, Moore pointed to a newly-elected president that wants the same thing as the DOGE chairs.
“It’s going to require an administration that’s willing to pull back some of their own power, giving more of that power back to Congress. I don’t think we’ve had an administration really willing to do that for decades. Hopefully this is the time that we can do that.”
