Lawmaker calls on Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation to support DOGE
(WHTM)– A Pennsylvania lawmaker is calling on lawmakers to support the Department of Government Efficiency.
State Senator Doug Mastriano called on the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation to support DOGE, the organization created by President Donald Trump and Tech Billionaire Elon Musk to reduce and cut government spending more efficiently.
'For too long, taxpayer dollars have been wasted on bloated bureaucracies, redundant programs and outrageous foreign expenditures that do nothing for the hardworking people of Pennsylvania. Government inefficiency is a hidden tax on every citizen. Billions of dollars have vanished into fraudulent programs and unnecessary contracts. Critical resources have been misallocated while Pennsylvanians struggle to make ends meet,' Mastriano said.
DOGE: Several government offices to close in Central Pennsylvania
Mastriano added that DOGE's accomplishments so far show that the government can work for the people.
DOGE's role in slashing government inefficiencies and spending has sparked some controversy since the Trump Administration took office with reports that the organization attempted to access the Treasury Department and the Integrated Data Retrieval System and its firing of thousands of federal workers.
While some of the organization's practices have been deemed controversial by some, others are in full support, with some lawmakers proposing state's should have their own DOGE.
Mastriano himself proposed Pennsylvania should have their own version of DOGE, saying that DOGE only existing at the federal level has drawn confusion and criticism.
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"These responses failed to diminish our concerns about borrowers' privacy and whether the Department may have violated the law or the federal government's procedures in handling this data," senators wrote in the letter. ABC News reached out to the Education Department and the White House about DOGE's access to borrower data but did not receive a reply before this story was published. In April, Warren launched her "Save Our Schools" campaign in opposition to President Donald Trump's and McMahon's efforts to dismantle the department. The senator has previously investigated the firing of FSA employees and how a reduction in staff at the agency could have "dire consequences" for borrowers. "ED should immediately restore all fired [Federal Student Aid] employees responsible for reviewing student aid complaints and refrain from taking any measures to deter the submission of complaints," Warren and a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to McMahon in March. Recently, congressional Democrats insisted McMahon cooperate with a separate inspector general review of the administration's plan to shutter the smallest Cabinet-level agency. A group of lawmakers on the Education and Workforce, Oversight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees in the House and Senate sent the secretary a letter requesting she comply with the federal watchdog. "The OIG must be allowed to do its job," they wrote. "We urge the Department to immediately meet its obligation under the law to fully comply with the OIG's review. "Congress and the public need to understand the full extent and impact of the Administration's actions on the Department and the students, families, and educational communities it may no longer be able to serve," they added. McMahon's "final mission" as the 13th education secretary is to abolish the department, but the administration's first steps to diminish the agency was denied in a federal appeals court loss last week.
