There is a lot of buzz about the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by X owner Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Although the initiative is not an official government agency, it has become the center of a political whirlwind in Washington, DC
President-elect Donald Trump has tasked the two men with cutting federal bureaucracy, cutting regulations and eliminating wasteful spending. It is certainly a worthwhile endeavor. However, given that DOGE only has the power to make recommendations that are likely to be ignored by Congress, perhaps other tactics could lend a hand reduce the power of the administrative state.
It was Musk and Ramaswamy Speaking of which to D.C. lawmakers to drum up support for the project, which aims to cut $500 billion annually from the federal budget. “The government is too big, it does too many things and it does almost nothing well. And taxpayers deserve better,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
It is. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said She is “thrilled that there is finally a desire to put my work into action” and that she will “work with the Trump administration and DOGE to permanently put the federal government on a diet.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has already gotten the ball rolling. you recently introduced the “DOGE Act,” which says it will “freeze federal employee hiring, begin the process of relocating agencies from the D.C. swamp, and establish a performance-based pay system for the federal workforce.”
However, some have suggested that restoring the state may not be as straightforward as it seems. James Broughel from the Competitive Enterprise Institute said CNN that some may overestimate DOGE’s ability to override federal regulations. “These recent Supreme Court rulings will not make it any easier for them to reduce the inventory of existing regulations,” he said, referring to the West Virginia v. EPA And Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo Judgments. Those rulings could actually “work against them,” he said.
With the Loper-Bright ruling, the justices overturned a long-standing precedent that required courts to defer to federal agency regulations when there are ambiguities in a law. In the West Virginia case, the Supreme Court curtailed the authority of agencies to address issues of great economic and political importance when Congress had not expressly given those powers to agencies.
Still, Musk and Ramaswamy argued in an editorial that Trump could still suspend many of these regulations and order agencies not to enforce them. “DOGE will submit this list of regulations to President Trump, who may, through executive action, immediately suspend enforcement of these regulations and begin the review and repeal process. “This would free individuals and businesses from illegal regulations that were never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy,” they wrote.
But even though DOGE faces some hurdles, there are other measures that can be taken at the state level to reduce the burden of excessive regulations. Versions of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act provisions have been considered in several states as a way to prevent unelected bureaucrats from crafting burdensome rules and regulations with the force of law. In states like Florida, these types of laws have made significant progress in shrinking the administrative state.
“Florida reduced the number of new regulations proposed annually by 51 percent after passing a REINS law, and a study concluded that the REINS law has effectively reduced Florida’s regulatory costs by $2 billion since 2010.” , Jonathan Small, President of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, wrote.
Small noted that despite being governed by Republicans, Oklahoma is 17thTh The most regulated state with over 142,000 regulations. State lawmakers like Sen. Michael Bergstrom, who oversees the state’s Administrative Committee, said, “This is just too much.” As chairman, my goal is to read every package submitted, but due to work and time constraints, I have been unable to do so. “
This has created a major problem in both the Sooner State and other states. As Daniel Dew of the Pacific Legal Foundation pointed out“Unelected bureaucrats were increasingly given the powers of both the legislature and the governor, allowing them to make and enforce laws without oversight or constitutional restrictions.” It is time for states to rein in government agencies and give elected representatives the keys to power return.”
At this point, it is not clear what progress DOGE will make. But even if it doesn’t achieve all of its goals, it could lend a hand expose the extent of waste and unnecessary regulation in our federal government. It would be a great way to educate the public about what the government is actually doing while pretending to work for us.
At the state level, however, laws like the REINS Act are one of several ways to shrink the size of government while giving more power back to the people rather than to unelected bureaucrats.
