Nearly half of Republicans in the Ohio House have joined a cost-cutting group modeling itself after Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Like a similar effort among Republicans in Congress, the Ohio lawmakers are calling themselves the DOGE caucus.
Freshman Rep. Tex Fischer (R-Boardman) said he co-founded the DOGE caucus to make sure government is focused on what he calls core functions of education, public safety and infrastructure. He’s serving as chair, with fellow newcomer Ty Matthews (R-Findlay) and Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) as vice-chairs.
“I think there are a lot of things that maybe the state of Ohio does that may not be necessarily best done at the state level,” Fischer said.
For instance, he said economic development is important, but he doesn’t think the state should be “the go-between for anything positive to happen with the economy. I think we want to let the market work. We want to create a favorable environment. We don’t want the state to be the one creating the jobs.”
He won’t name specific concerns, but says agencies or programs that have asked for huge increases are suspect. And he said he knows Republicans have run state government for most of the last three decades.
“I think wasteful spending and mission creep of what government does is a bipartisan issue,” Fischer said. “This isn’t meant to be a super hyper partisan thing. I think that both parties share a good bit of the blame for what’s going on at the federal level, and we’re certainly not immune.”
The group about 25 members has been meeting virtually with a deadline coming up Friday, the day to submit proposed amendments to Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year state budget.
The DOGE caucus is an informal group; it’s not a House committee with scheduled public meetings. And Fischer also noted it has other limitations.
“We’re a legislative caucus, not an executive agency. We’re not going to be emailing any state employees asking them to give us five things they worked on throughout the week,” Fischer said, referencing the communications that have come from Musk and DOGE to federal workers which have raised legal questions. “We’re really just trying to get like-minded people into a room to talk about making sure that government is spending our money wisely and focusing on its core functions that we all agree with.”
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has set a goal of passing the budget in that chamber by Easter break, around April 20. The budget must also pass the Senate and be signed by DeWine by the end of June. It’ll be DeWine’s last budget, as he leaves office next year.
