COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republicans in the Ohio House have formed their own DOGE Caucus.
It’s named after Tesla founder Elon Musk’s federal Department of Government Efficiency, but don’t expect Ohio Republicans to begin emailing public employees with lists of five things they accomplished this week.
That is not how the DOGE Caucus intends to operate. For starters, they lack the executive authority to slash state agencies like Musk does.
“Other than the name, which is great for branding, we’re approaching this in a completely different way,” said state Rep. Tex Fischer, a Mahoning County Republican.
His goal for Ohio’s DOGE Caucus is to bring together “like-minded” legislators on a regular basis to discuss issues and how to make state government more “smart, lean, and cost effective.”
“I think we all share the same goal that government should be very effective at the things that it does, but the things that should be focused on the basics: education, infrastructure, public safety,” said Fischer.
Lawmakers at nearly every level of government form caucuses (groups) based on shared policy priorities. Ohio has three legislative caucuses: black, conservative, and women’s.
The House DOGE Caucus currently has 25 Republican members, including Ashtabula County state Rep. Dave Thomas, who is leading the GOP’s efforts on property tax reform.
The DOGE Caucus intends to focus on reducing property taxes.
“Ask the public what a mill is,” said Rep. Ty Matthews, a Republican from Findlay. “I think simplifying our language is really big, so people can truly understand what is going on.”
(A mill is a tax rate that equals $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value on a property.)
No Democratic legislators have joined Ohio’s DOGE workgroup.
“Kicking veterans off of health insurance, denying seniors access to services, and cutting funding for after-school programming are not about efficiency,” Cincinnati state Rep. Dani Isaacsohn said. “We can be fiscally responsible and morally compassionate at the same time.”
Isaacsohn stated that he was willing to work on combating tax fraud or reducing kickbacks to special interests. But he doesn’t like how Musk runs his federal task force.
The United States House of Representatives has its own DOGE Caucus. It was established to collaborate with Musk and, potentially, pass legislation to assist the Trump administration in implementing reforms.
U.S. Rep Greg Landsman, a Cincinnati Democrat, told NewsNation he’s willing to join.
“Oh, yeah, you got to be in the room,” Landsman replied. “If you want to affect change and have an impact, you want to be in the room.”
Fischer said the Ohio DOGE Caucus is discussing the possibility of establishing an executive DOGE agency.
