'DOGE is not dead,' defiant House caucus leader declares in push to revive Musk-era cuts
EXCLUSIVE: A co-founder of the House of Representatives’ DOGE Caucus is declaring that the movement for government efficiency is still alive and well, even if the surrounding furor has died down.
"DOGE is alive. It certainly is not on the front burner as it needs to be. There's still a lot of members of Congress that want to continue the battle [against] waste, fraud and abuse," Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., co-chair of the House DOGE Caucus, told Fox News Digital.
"We're still $38 trillion in debt, that's growing. So anything we can possibly do — we’re still looking to continue the DOGE efforts."
DOGE STAFFING SHAKEUP AS ELON MUSK HANGS UP HIS HAT, WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS
Bean said he was hoping to soon hold more caucus meetings "just to let everybody know DOGE is not dead."
The concept of "DOGE" took Washington — Republicans in particular — by storm earlier this year, when President Donald Trump tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead an initiative called the "Department of Government Efficiency."
Musk said at the time that he was committed to finding as much as $2 trillion in savings for the federal government. That goal was not reached by the time Musk reached the end of his tenure, however.
The DOGE website, which has not been updated since early October, claims an estimated $214 billion in savings for the federal government.
TRUMP TEASES MUSK AT FORUM AS ONCE-FROSTY DYNAMIC SEEMS TO TAKE A TURN
But Bean and other Republicans have tried to keep it alive, celebrating that cutting bureaucratic red tape and bloated federal contracts was finally generating enthusiasm in the cultural zeitgeist.
Musk’s push spurred multiple similar efforts in Congress, including Bean’s caucus and a House Oversight subcommittee called "Delivering on Government Efficiency" (DOGE).
The caucus, which is also co-chaired by Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Blake Moore, R-Utah, had several meetings that saw Republicans and even some Democrats in attendance.
Those, too, have since wound down, but Bean told Fox News Digital that he’s looking to bring them back and could begin with a focus on unused office space owned by the U.S. government.
"I'm not saying it's mismanaged, I'm just saying it's not the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars to maintain all this space where people still work from home or are working across the country," Bean said. "That's something that I think we can coalesce around, save some money as well as get spending under control."
He also said he hoped for more bipartisan participation going forward, telling Fox News Digital, "It shouldn't be a partisan issue. Everybody should be on board."