The new Republican-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) caucus has its first Democratic member.
Representative Jared Moskowitz announced Tuesday that he would join the congressional caucus, which will coordinate lawmakers with DOGE, President-elect Donald Trump's newly created department.
"Today, I will join the Congressional DOGE Caucus, because I believe that streamlining government processes and reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue," Moskowitz said in a statement.
Although DOGE won't formally start until Trump takes office in January, Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-chair the commission. Congressional Republicans, including former Trump critics, are lining up to embrace the new office.
Republican Representatives Aaron Bean and Pete Sessions launched the DOGE Caucus last month "to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government" and to support the new office. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene will chair a separate new congressional subcommittee under the House Oversight Committee.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a one-time Trump critic, announced the Senate DOGE Caucus days later to "work hand in hand with the Trump administration's recently formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)." Senators John Cornyn, Ted Budd, Mike Lee, Rick Scott, Roger Marshall, Eric Schmitt and James Lankford are also joining the Senate Caucus.
Moskowitz plans to focus his work with the caucus on reorganizing one federal agency, which he believes should be divided into several offices.
"I've been clear there are ways we can reorganize our government to make it work better for the American people. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security, while necessary, has gotten too big," the Florida Democrat said.
"The caucus should look at the bureaucracy that DHS has become and include recommendations to make Secret Service and FEMA independent federal agencies with a direct report to the White House."
"It's not practical to have 22 agencies under this one department," he said. "I look forward to working in a bipartisan manner with my colleagues to remove FEMA and Secret Service."
Newsweek reached out to DOGE via direct message on X for comment.
Moskowitz isn't the only voice on the left who supports DOGE. In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, wrote, "DOGE aims to address by identifying pinpoint executive actions that would result in immediate savings for taxpayers."
"Elon Musk is right," Sanders also said in a post on X. "The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change."
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