Minnesota Republicans are looking to copy DOGE

Plus, Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett defends NIH cuts

Led by Minnesota state Rep. Elliott Engen (R-White Bear Township), GOP members are pushing legislation that would create a “Commission on Governmental Efficiency and Ethics” similar to that of the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The goal, according to House documents, would be for the commission to “investigate allegations of fraud in state programs and undisclosed legislative conflicts of interest.” The commission is similar to the federal one introduced by tech billionaire and Trump affiliate, but the Minnesota version would make its staff membership public; it would be staffed by three Democrats and three Republicans. 

However, despite the hype, Musk’s DOGE agenda has been rife with misleading conduct: From claiming to have canceled excessive government contracts that were already terminated by the previous administration to firing (and then rehiring) workers in charge of nuclear weapon safety at the National Nuclear Security Administration, DOGE has repeatedly misstepped.

But Engen said that Musk only partially inspired the supposed urgency for a DOGE-like program. 

“That national narrative that’s kind of been picked up on, I think that we should capitalize on that and say, ‘Hey, our government is there. They’re tasked with working for the constituents that we aim to serve,” Engen said.

“But if we’re not doing that, and it’s going towards fraud, it’s going towards unethical behavior between legislators and how they interact in their private sector work, then we should crack down on that.”

The bill, which was introduced in mid-March, now has a companion bill in the Minnesota Senate that was put forward last week. Republican lawmakers will also have to move quickly with the proposition: The final deadline for committee hearings on new bills is April 11. 

GOP advocates should also expect pushback from their DFL colleagues. 

“At DOGE, Elon Musk is saying, ‘Oh, there’s fraud, there’s fraud, there’s fraud,” state Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) told Minnesota Public Radio.  

“And there’s real concern that they are destroying the protections and destroying the ability to function of the entire Social Security system, and they’re doing this across the entire federal government.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) has defended the Trump administration’s funding cuts to the National Institute of Health (NIH), on the grounds that the country needs to save money because of the national debt.

Barrett has pushed back on concerns about the NIH cuts threatening to disrupt vital research for things including cancer, women’s health, neurodegenerative diseases and mental health disorders at Michigan State University (MSU), which is located within his congressional district. Earlier this month, a concerned citizen on Facebook urged Barrett to help restore cancer funding research. Barrett parroted the Trump administration’s narrative and argued that the NIH cuts wouldn’t affect the research but would better utilize taxpayer dollars.

Screenshot of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s (R-MI) official Facebook page

Contrary to Barrett’s point, MSU Associate Dean for Research Analytics at the College of Human Medicine Dr. Jack Lipton told Fox 17 last month that even cuts to indirect funding would end research and threaten the economy in Lansing.

“There’s two pieces that fund research. There’s the project-based research that we do, which includes the funding for Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease, and then there’s additional funds that we receive that are related to the cost of running the laboratories in which we work,” Lipton said.

When presented with Lipton’s claims, Barrett’s office doubled down in a statement to Heartland Signal, arguing that the NIH cuts are needed to alleviate the national debt and that MSU raises enough money to advance its own research.

“The United States is nearly $37 trillion dollars in debt. Restructuring the NIH to align public and private research grants is a reasonable approach to take, especially when schools like Michigan State University are raising $6 billion dollars to advance their own research,” a spokesperson for Barrett’s office said.

Despite Barrett’s concerns about the national debt, he and his Republican colleagues voted to advance a continuing resolution that preserves President Donald Trump’s tax cuts that could add as much as $11 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

The threat to PTSD research seemingly goes against Barrett’s pledge to serve as a voice for veterans “so they receive the care, resources, and respect they have earned.”

Barrett’s wife was treated for a rare form of skin cancer at the University of Michigan in 2018. Under Trump’s NIH cuts, the University of Michigan could lose as much as $119 million in funding, with one research professor saying clinical trials for cancer treatment research would likely be discontinued if the cuts go through.

Barrett was narrowly elected by 3.7 percentage points (16,763 votes) after an expensive race last cycle. He will likely face another tough reelection bid in 2026, with Cook Political Report rating the race a tossup.