Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is leading a new caucus to carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government of Efficiency’s agenda in the upper chamber.
The Senate DOGE Caucus, announced on Friday, is set to play an integral role in aiding Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s efforts to reclaim power from unelected civil bureaucrats, target unconstitutional regulations representing what they characterize as “federal overreach,” slash government spending, and save costs for taxpayers.
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Trump tapped the two men to spearhead DOGE this month. Earlier this week, a DOGE partnership in the House was created after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was named chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. With the announcement that Ernst will form a Senate caucus, the DOGE movement now has advocates in both chambers of Congress.
Commenting on her new job on Saturday, Ernst said: “Iowans elected me with a mandate to cut Washington’s pork and make ‘em squeal! From billion-dollar boondoggles to welfare for politicians and trillion-dollar slush funds, my decade-long investigations have exposed levels of abuse that are almost too insane to believe.”
“The tables are finally turning, the knives are out, and waste is on the chopping block. As President Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy prepare to take action, the Senate DOGE Caucus is ready to carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans,” the Iowa senator told the Washington Examiner.
Ernst’s extensive hog analogy follows a popular ad campaign against government waste that she made during her 2014 senate race.
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“I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork,” she said during the ad spot.” Washington’s full of big spenders. Let’s make ‘em squeal.”
After she won her Senate race, Ernst continued her “make ‘em squeal” pitches, launching 10 years of “Squeal Awards” that mirrored DOGE’s concerns about government waste. Each month, the senator highlights what she describes as government efficiencies, or “a Washington expense, program or concept that has proven to be wasteful and must be cut.”
During her time in Congress, Ernst pressed on a number of priorities now highlighted by Musk and Ramaswamy, including targeting the wave of government workers who continue to benefit from COVID-19 remote work policies. She recently promised to give DOGE a “roadmap” to get “85% of the federal workforce” back in the office.
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Ramaswamy met with Ernst Thursday evening to discuss her DOGE Senate Caucus role and outline her vision for the group, which will likely resemble her “make ‘em squeal” agenda.
“We look forward to partnering with the Senate to downsize government. Grateful to @SenJoniErnst for her excellent suggestions yesterday!” Ramaswamy said following the meeting in a post to X. He has also held high words of praise for Ernst’s IRS audit, which reported that thousands of IRS employees owe tens of millions of dollars in back taxes.
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Founding members of Ernst’s new caucus include Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS) James Lankford (R-OK), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO).
Trump’s move to form DOGE following his election victory drew some scorn from Washington insiders, who questioned the department’s sweeping goals, including promises to balance the budget.
“In FY2023, the U.S. Government spent $6.16. trillion while only bringing in $4.47 trillion. The last budget surplus was in 2001,” a recent post from DOGE’s X account reads before warning that “this trend must be reversed.”
But Ernst was quick to push back against criticism.
“If someone is saying we can’t trim the fat, it’s likely because they are benefiting from exploiting taxpayers. We can and we will eliminate the waste,” she said in a post to X.
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Ernst has particularly scorned federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration for pouring millions of dollars into getting “monkeys addicted to nicotine and tobacco,” and the National Institutes of Health for spending millions on cat studies.
“DOGE is here to stop more tax dollars from going up in smoke,” she promised in a recent post to X.