President Donald Trump’s administration is chipping away at the size and scope of the federal government through DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, to which Trump has handed keys to billionaire owner of Tesla and X, Elon Musk. Several state governments are exploring similar efforts on a local scale, including in Wisconsin.
Earlier this year, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced the establishment of a Wisconsin version of DOGE, with its own abbreviation: GOAT. It’s the Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency.
Republican-created GOAT aims to reform state government
Vos said in December that “one of the big ideas is looking at how we can reform government.” He says that includes reevaluating the work-from-home movement and using technology and AI to “drive down [in]efficiencies to increase the product for our customers.” He says Republicans will aim to do this through the state budget and with stand-alone bills.
One member of the committee is southeastern Wisconsin GOP Rep. Dan Knodl of Germantown. In an interview with WUWM, he says the majority of people he’s spoken with say they don’t feel like they’re getting a return on their investment from the government.
“We have to deal with that when constituents call and need help from a certain [state] agency, and it's challenging. It's challenging for me as the legislator, sometimes, to get through to these agencies, to get responses and results,” he says. Knodl says government inefficiency happens whether the governor is Republican or Democrat.
He says the question is "where can we create efficiencies?" He says, "It's always talked about, but it's a challenge to see it through, and often it just gets lost in a study." He says an audit is a little more involved than a study or setting up a task force. "So this, I think I'm happy that I was put on an audit committee, and I think that we're going to have our hands full, and there's plenty things already in the works, and whatever might come forward that we're examining, but then [the goal is] to take action."
He says he recently chaired the Senate Elections Committee, "and there's still a number of items from the audit that was done on the Wisconsin Elections Commission that they have not acted on and made those improvements. So I was something I continually tried to follow up on."
One place GOAT differs from DOGE — changes require bipartisan solutions
Knodl notes though, that these issues will require bipartisan solutions. He says Republicans are in the majority in the Legislature, "but all the agencies are run by Gov. Evers' appointees. So if I want to get something accomplished, I've got to find a way to work with those people in the agencies."
Knodl believes that Trump’s winning of the popular vote at the national level shows that more people want to limit government spending.
Knodl supports what DOGE is doing in the federal government taking steps to downsize of federal agencies, which has left tens — even hundreds— of thousands of federal workers without jobs.
“Yeah, absolutely I do, and we'll be doing that as well. Here, the budget [process] brings it out specifically, because, again, we have to balance the budget, so we have to be prudent and have those conversations, which is good,” he says.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, will release his biennial budget proposal this week, which then goes to the Republican-led Legislature for review.
Knodl says GOAT will look at creating efficiencies "and often with government, the only way to change is to feel the pain." At the same time, he notes that Wisconsin is not in the same financial situation as the federal government, with its $2 trillion deficit. Wisconsin has a $4.3 billion dollar surplus.
Knodl doesn’t anticipate closing entire agencies and freezing funds, especially since any proposed cuts would need to go through a Democratic governor. “We're not going to close or collapse any agencies here in Wisconsin, though, we need to look at, in buildings, we have an excess of office capacity.” Knodl says there are a portion of jobs for which working at home can be effective, but not at the widespread use that it is now.
The Germantown lawmaker says while he understands some benefits of working from home, state agencies need to do a better job of monitoring productivity. “I have a son who is a mechanical engineer,” says Knodl. “He works exclusively from home, but it's amazing. There's an actual clock on his computer, [on] one of his computer screens, that's monitoring what he's doing. We don't have that kind of accountability in government, but we need to get somewhere towards that type of accountability.”
Democrats cautiously optimistic
Democrats are proceeding with cautious optimism. Democratic Representative Mike Bare of Verona, who is on the GOAT committee, said in a statement, “Wisconsin has a long history dating back to the Progressive movement of wanting the government to be more innovative, efficient, accountable and transparent. As elected officials, we should always be open to scrutiny and working to make our government function better. The Chair of the GOAT Committee has suggested to me that this be a Committee with bipartisan results, and the Democrats on this Committee are eager to engage in bipartisan efforts to meet this Committee’s goals. But if Republicans want to copy and paste Elon Musk and Donald Trump's actions, we should be skeptical."
Bare takes issue with any efforts to end or significantly limit remote work for state workers. "State government already has longstanding recruitment and retention issues," Bare said. "Allowing remote work makes us more competitive with private employers. The Evers Administration has been managing remote work for years, and a one-size policy from the Legislature forbidding remote work ignores the realities facing today’s workforce. Instead of taking accommodations away from state workers, we should be giving workers a seat back at the bargaining table, and paying competitive wages in safe work conditions.”
There are no scheduled meetings of the GOAT committee yet listed on the Wisconsin Legislature's website.
