Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14, creating the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office, inspired by President Donald Trump’s federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Like its federal counterpart, Texas DOGE aims to cut red tape, reduce waste and streamline state operations.
The agency will identify and eliminate “unnecessary” regulations, simplify public access to government processes, reduce business bureaucracy (fees, training hours) and conduct cost-saving reviews of state agencies.
The initiative will cost $22 million over five years, but supporters (including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick) argue it will yield long-term savings and attract businesses by improving efficiency.
Texas joins Florida, Georgia, Iowa and other GOP-dominated states in adopting DOGE-style reforms. Florida’s version, via Executive Order 25-44, targets university spending, dormant boards and AI-driven audits.
Abbott claims Texas DOGE will deliver a “leaner, faster government,” prioritizing taxpayer savings and economic growth. The office begins its review of state agencies immediately.
The Texas DOGE initiative, created under Senate Bill 14, has drawn inspiration from the federal DOGE initiative of President Donald Trump. The federal DOGE initiative, dubbed as the “Manhattan Project,” seeks to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget.
Now, Texas is taking similar steps at the state level. The newly formed “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” will identify and eliminate “unnecessary and ineffective” state regulations; improve public access to government rules, forms and filings; reduce mandatory training hours, fees and bureaucratic hurdles for businesses; and conduct cost-saving reviews of state agencies. (Related: Texas legislature adopts “DOGE” model to tackle government efficiency.)
The program is projected to cost $22 million over the next five years, but Abbott and supporters argue the long-term savings will far outweigh the initial investment.
“Texas DOGE will lead to spending cuts, regulation cuts and a more user-friendly government,” Abbott said during the bill-signing ceremony in Austin on Wednesday, April 23. “It will ensure that Texas is operating at the speed of business and it will make it easier for our fellow Texans, average Texas, to deal with their own state government.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), a key backer of the bill, echoed a similar statement. He stressed that Texas DOGE, which garnered bipartisan support in the Republican-dominated legislature, would attract more businesses and jobs by cutting red tape.
“We want to have a clear review of all of our agencies, where we can trim, how we can save businesses money, how we can save taxpayers money, so that they will continue to come here and create jobs and add to our economic viability and competitiveness,” R said during the ceremony.
“In Texas, we like to keep things simple, so Texas DOGE will make us more transparent than ever to every citizen [and] cut all the red tape – or most of the red tape, making us as efficient as possible, attracting more businesses, creating more jobs and saving taxpayer money.”
Republican-led states have established DOGE-inspired regulatory agencies
Texas is one of the many predominantly Republican-led states that have quickly moved to establish regulatory agencies inspired by the federal DOGE initiative. Most of these states have implemented these measures through executive orders and the formation of specialized task forces.
Major cost-cutting measures include eliminating 740 net state government positions (despite adding law enforcement and corrections staff); sunsetting 70 dormant Boards and Commissions, cutting 900 associated positions “nobody has ever heard of”; deploying AI for contract reviews to ensure taxpayer dollars are not being wasted on unnecessary spending or politically driven initiatives; auditing Florida’s public universities and colleges to eliminate wasteful programs, redundant staff and “woke” expenditures; and scrutinizing local government budgets, using AI and public records to combat years of rising taxes and spending.
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