Sen. Doug Mastriano's proposed Pennsylvania DOGE would emulate Elon Musk's tactics

State Sen. Doug Mastriano wants to create a Pennsylvania version of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that he claims — without evidence — could save taxpayers $105 billion.

Mastriano, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022, did not respond to the Dispatch's requests for comment about his proposal. In his co-sponsorship memo, the lawmaker said the state DOGE would be able to audit state agencies — something the auditor general's office already does — and immediately suspend payments.

At the moment, such legislation is unlikely to make it to Gov. Josh Shapiro's desk as Democrats hold a slim majority in the state House. Mastriano's proposal drew the support of a few Republican lawmakers and flat dismissal by several prominent Pennsylvania Democrats.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes, minority chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told ABC27 that a state-level DOGE is "a dumb idea," for example.

“Any replication of what Musk and Trump (have) created in Washington, D.C. to come and cause the kind of chaos that they caused at the federal level, at the local level – unacceptable,” Hughes told ABC27.

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Musk, the unelected South African billionaire who oversees DOGE, has said he plans to cut $1 trillion in federal spending by the end of the current fiscal year in September.

Last month, DOGE launched a savings tracker that claimed $55 billion in savings to date. However, an NPR analysis of the data found that the estimated savings were vastly overstated — including an apparent $8 billion typo. The amount of confirmed cost savings, NPR reported, was $2 billion.

Elon Musk recently suggested that he will be done with his work in the near future. President Donald Trump told reporters this week that “at some point, he’s going to be going back” to running his companies. As far as the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump said “it will end.”

All of that talk was before Musk faced a setback Tuesday in Wisconsin, where voters rejected his choice for a state Supreme Court candidate despite more than $21 million in personal donations and his campaign appearance over the weekend. There are more problems for the billionaire entrepreneur at Tesla, his electric automaker, which saw a 13% drop in sales in the first three months of the year.

The White House has not disclosed any clear timeline for closing down DOGE, and the government cost-cutting organization was never supposed to become a permanent fixture in Washington. But it could be reaching a conclusion faster than anticipated. DOGE was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026.

Mastriano, who represents Franklin and Adams counties, called on the state’s congressional delegation to support the department he said will slash unnecessary spending and bring accountability back to government.

While opponents are critical of the disorganization and decentralization of DOGE’s seemingly random moves, Mastriano points to Musk’s business success as to why his proposed department could help the state.

“Following this model, the public sector can eliminate waste, streamline operations, adopt data-driven decision making and use technology to reduce costs and improve services,” Mastriano said in his release. “Government cannot be bogged down by outdated bureaucracy and broken systems any longer.”

Mastriano’s proposed Pennsylvania DOGE would be created through legislation by the General Assembly, which is distinctly different from the Trump administration’s executive approach that circumnavigated congress.

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But the state’s General Assembly, a check on the governor's executive branch, is already empowered to do what DOGE proposes.

Key provisions of the PA DOGE like auditing and legislative accountability are outlined by Mastriano in a memo to senators, spelling out the role of legislative committees and staffs.

“Constitutional legislative oversight combined with the power of the purse strings already allows the General Assembly to review state spending and contracts,” said state Rep. Seth Grove, a Dover Township Republican. “The work DOGE is doing at the federal level can be done in states and should have been done in states already.”

Grove, known to flex the House's legislative oversight, is the Republican chair of the House Labor & Industry committee. He previously chaired the State Government Committee and was the ranking Republican on the House's financially powerful Appropriations Committee that oversaw the entirety of the state's roughly $45 billion budget.

State law requires all state contracts worth more than $5,000 to be placed online within a searchable tool on the state Treasury’s website, Grove said. And he noted that the state’s Treasurer Stacy Garrity reviews state spending requests and stops improper payments routinely.

A list compiled by the federal DOGE showed several hundred lease terminations of facilities all over the country used by the federal government for various field operations involving agriculture, housing and other research operations.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Water Science Center run by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Fairview Township appeared on DOGE's website listing agency cuts under “Real Estate.” DOGE claimed the annual lease of the USGS facility cost about $778,000 and that it could save $454,000 by eliminating the facility.

Mastriano, who lost the gubernatorial race in 2022 to Gov. Josh Shapiro, has also proposed legislation to display the Ten Commandments, Declaration of Independence and state and U.S. Constitutions in public schools.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

— Reach Mark Walters at mwalters@yorkdispatch.com.

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