Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that the state will launch its own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to eliminate waste and fraud.
“Florida has set the standard for fiscally conservative governance, and our new Florida DOGE task force will do even more to serve the people of Florida,” DeSantis said. “It will eliminate redundant boards and commissions, review state university and college operations and spending, utilize artificial intelligence to further examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste, and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat.”
The task force will utilize AI and other technologies to identify waste. Furthermore, the state-level DOGE will eliminate 70 boards and commissions as well as conduct reviews of college and university expenditures.
DeSantis’ executive order on the matter states that the Florida DOGE “shall be responsible for (1) ensuring compliance with this Executive Order; (2) using publicly available information to identify and report unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments; (3) coordinating with the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida and the State Board .of Education to identify and eliminate unnecessary spending, programs, courses, staff, and any other inefficiencies within the State University System and the Florida College System; and (4) recommending legislative reforms to promote efficiency, maximize productivity, and eliminate waste in state and local government.”
The governor declared on X that since 2019, Florida has “more than tripled the rainy day fund, eliminated 41% of the state’s historical debt, and maintained the lowest number of state employees per capita in the entire country.”
Iowa has also launched its own DOGE task force.
“I like to say that we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Governor Kim Reynolds (R) said during her 2025 Condition of the State Address. “And to build on our success, I’m launching our own State DOGE, to find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government. Because to pass meaningful property tax reform, we also need to be lean at the local level.”
