As President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency works to slash nearly $1 trillion in federal spending, Iowa Republicans have deep connections to those efforts.

One of Trump’s first actions during his second term in office was establishing DOGE — Iowa Republicans have long championed the effort.

Trump directed the department — headed by billionaire and owner of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk — to complete a thorough review of the productivity and efficiency of the federal government and root out $1 trillion in federal spending.

Since Trump took office, the department has made headlines nearly daily for cutting billions in funding, firing tens of thousands of federal employees, and canceling hundreds of contracts the federal government had awarded.

Iowa Republican leaders have long worked to champion similar efforts in Iowa and on the federal level.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds launched a state-level DOGE task force to pursue similar goals of streamlining government operations.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, co-chairs the Senate DOGE caucus, and has long championed efforts to cut wasteful spending in Washington.

Iowa Republicans U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra are members of their chamber’s DOGE caucus.

“I like to say that we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Reynolds said during her Condition of the State Address in January.

Iowa Republicans have played a key role in Trump’s efforts in slashing federal spending since he took office, with their connections rooted well before Trump’s DOGE was a concept.

The party of smaller government

Government efficiency is a bipartisan ideal, and shrinking the size of government is a bedrock of American conservatism but difficult to accomplish, University of Iowa Political Science Professor Tim Hagle said.

Many presidents have tried, Hagle said, but none have succeeded at making long-term and meaningful changes to the size and scope of the federal government.

“It’s really, really hard to shrink the size of the government. That size usually only grows,” Hagle said.

Hagle said there are many factors making it difficult to shrink the size of the federal government.

One reason is federal agencies and offices are made to solve a problem and work to justify their existences by proving they are helping solve the problem, he said. This makes it politically difficult to shrink government because the recipients and supporters of those services will be upset.

“If you happen to be the recipient of some government largesse that’s all of a sudden going to get cut, you’re not going to be happy about it,” Hagle said.

Musk’s team has made extensive cuts and become unpopular very quickly.

According to a March NBC News national poll, the majority of voters approve of the idea of DOGE, with 46 percent in support and 40 percent against. Only 33 percent of respondents thought Musk’s team should continue at its current pace, while 28 percent said it should slow down but not stop, and 33 percent said it should stop what it’s doing.

While the idea of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from the government might be popular among most Americans, opponents to DOGE said the team isn’t cutting abuse and instead is taking an axe to programs they don’t agree with.

All reductions have been through executive actions so far, which has caused controversy from congressional appropriators on both sides of the aisle who say he is violating a 1970s-era law that banned “impoundment,” or the executive branch refusing to spend congressionally appropriated funds.

The Impoundment Control Act, passed in 1974, was in response to former President Richard Nixon’s refusal to spend certain federal funds.

Hagle said the legality of Trump’s spending freezes is an open question since Congress is not very specific about how funding must be spent, rather dividing it into buckets. Then, the executive branch decides exactly how it is spent within the bucket it is approved for.

“Congress just passes the basic authorization and leaves it up to the executive branch to work out the details,” Hagle said. “And that gives the executive branch a lot of leeway in terms of how they handle the stuff, how much they spend, and so forth.”

Hagle said it would require Congress to pass further legislation to restrict Trump’s slashing of spending if they don’t like his cuts.

“If Congress doesn’t like, in this case, Trump not spending money on things, then they can either pass legislation to deal with it or not,” Hagle said.

Opponents of DOGE have criticized its fast and loose attitude toward cutting federal spending. Musk admitted that there would be mistakes, but when notified, they would attempt to restore the spending as quickly as possible.

Musk’s cuts include a self-proclaimed $155 billion in canceled contracts and grants, ending leases for unused federal office space, laying off tens of thousands of federal workers. Many of those cuts affect services provided in Iowa, like the layoffs of federal workers.

“We all want to see government work more efficiently,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said. “We all want to eliminate fraud and waste and abuse. That is something that I hope that they’re able to accomplish, but the way they’re going about it certainly doesn’t give us any faith.”

However, Iowa’s congressional delegation has been quick to defend DOGE’s actions, despite public backlash.

Ernst’s deep ties to DOGE

Iowa’s deep ties to DOGE aren’t just from the state’s governor.  Ernst, Iowa’s junior Republican senator, has made government efficiency a large part of her career.

When Ernst ran for Senate in 2014, she promised to find and root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and to “drain the swamp.” She even released an ad in which she stated she would make Washington bureaucrats “squeal” by challenging the bureaucracy.

Ernst has previously advocated for federal employees to come back to work in person, has criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for the cost of maintaining empty federal offices, and has sponsored legislation requiring enhanced reporting for government projects over $1 billion that are behind schedule.

Now, Ernst is the co-chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, where she works closely with Musk and has pitched him ways to cut spending, including many of her previous legislative proposals, such as getting rid of empty federal offices and looking into how funds are spent on billion-dollar projects.

“I have worked on what I call my squeal priorities the past 10 years, and with that blueprint, I was able to present that to Elon Musk at DOGE,” Ernst said in an interview with The Daily Iowan in Washington, D.C. “They’ve used that as a blueprint on what they are examining.”

Ernst said she is happy with DOGE’s progress so far and the more than $800 per taxpayer DOGE claims it has saved.

“That’s just two months into the process,” Ernst said. “So, I think we have a long way to go, but I’m actually very excited about it.”

However, Ernst acknowledged DOGE is moving quickly, and there might have been a few bumps along the road. Ernst said Musk has encouraged members of Congress to reach out to them if they feel a cut was a mistake.

“Elon Musk himself has acknowledged that there have been a few mistakes along the way, but as long as they are quickly identified,” Ernst said. “When they are quickly identified, they will go in, evaluate if there was a mistake made, and then they can correct it.”

RELATED: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds pitches Iowa DOGE to Congress

While Ernst has helped lead congressional support for DOGE, other members of Iowa’s congressional delegation have supported DOGE’s actions.

Miller-Meeks, a member of the House DOGE caucus, said Iowans elected Trump to look at how the government spends money and to find inefficiencies, and he is doing what he promised.

Miller-Meeks also said the review of spending is to help restore Iowans’ trust in the federal government.

“When you’re asking people to go to work, earn a salary, pay taxes, they want to know that their taxpayer money is used wisely,” Miller-Meeks said in an interview with the DI. “And I think by having a federal government that works more effectively and more efficiently, that’s going to further allow our economy to grow, which then increases the amount of  revenue that comes into the federal government.”

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is a member of the DOGE caucus and the House Appropriations Committee, and said she supports the review and said the process could help improve service to Iowans by making the historically inefficient federal government efficient.

“So, in my mind, if we’re laser-focused on fixing a lot of these processes, it’s actually going to end up delivering better customer service for the taxpayer, which is what we all want to see happen,” Hinson said in an interview with the DI.

“Doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing”

Reynolds spearheaded a massive realignment of the state government in 2023, which included reducing the number of cabinet-level agencies from 37 to 16. She also signed a bill into law last year that would eliminate 67 of the state’s boards and commissions.

Reynolds was asked to testify about the state’s efforts before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in February. Democrats argued the federal government should follow Iowa’s example of a slower, more thorough process that involved lawmakers instead of the slash-and-burn style it currently deploys.

While the federal DOGE has faced criticism, Reynolds emphasized that Iowa’s state DOGE task force will focus on maximizing taxpayer returns, enhancing workforce training, and leveraging technology like artificial intelligence.

The task force, chaired by Emily Schmitt of Sukup Manufacturing, aims to build upon previous efficiency efforts.

“This task force is yet another opportunity to apply Iowa’s proven formula of asking tough questions and making bold, transformative changes,” Reynolds said in an April 2 news release following the task force’s first meeting. “I couldn’t have more confidence in the talented members of this group, under Emily Schmitt’s leadership, to build on our strong foundation and chart the course for more efficient government at all levels for Iowans.”

The task force is looking to further Reynolds’ sweeping reforms by making recommendations to the governor instead of acting unilaterally. Schmitt said she wants to make it easier for Iowans to interact with the government and get their problems solved.

“We want Iowans to be able to feel a tangible difference when engaging with the government, hoping that our efficiency and streamlining will improve the process,” Schmitt said. “Because we want Iowans to engage with the government, and we want to make that simpler.”

The task force had its first meeting on April 2 and will continue to have meetings until it forms a report for the governor by Aug. 9.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Hinson was not a member of the DOGE Caucus. The DI regrets this error.