Governor Ron DeSantis announced he is launching a “Florida DOGE” task force to audit several areas of Florida’s government.
The task force is named after DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, temporary federal department led by billionaire Elon Musk. In his speech announcing Florida’s version, DeSantis hinted he plans on using it to target higher education programs and other departments he and other Republicans disagree with.
“In the state of Florida, we take pride in how we run things. I say we were DOGE before DOGE was cool,” he said
In front of a sign that read “Keeping Florida Efficient”, DeSantis announced the task force will audit state government agencies, universities and local governments to cut wasteful spending.
Much of their attention would be rooting out Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Florida made it illegal in 2023 for the state’s universities and colleges to have DEI programs, but DeSantis is convinced university employees are working to hide them. With the audits, DeSantis wants to cut classes and university faculty and staff that he believes isn’t maximizing value for its students.
“The problem is, I think what you see in some bureaucracies is they say, ‘oh, we can't do DEI, so they just rename it and continue to do it, just kind of under a different banner.’ And we are going to be looking to see whether that's going on, because obviously the university is not going to be able to get away with doing it,” he said.
He also wants to shut down 70 government boards made by the legislature. While he makes many of those board appointments already, shuttering them would consolidate more power for himself. Cutting those boards would terminate 900 state positions.
“We've examined the budgets, we've examined appointments, vacancies, the mission, trying to assess whether the mission still relevant, whether it overlaps with other boards or authorities, whether has been become obsolete over time, and there are some that actually serve their purpose,” he said.
DeSantis also wants Florida DOGE to audit local government spending. But how much power that task force has will largely be up to the state legislature, as many of the issues the governor discussed would require their collaboration.