WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a fiery speech on the House floor, Florida Congressman Jared Moskowitz delivered a blunt critique of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus, calling the six-month-old initiative “inefficient,” “ineffective,” and “dead.” Moskowitz, notably the first Democrat to join the caucus, said he joined in good faith — but claimed it has failed to deliver on its central promise: making the federal government more efficient.
“I did it for the right reason,” Moskowitz said. “Because I thought government can get smaller, government can save money, and government can be more efficient. That polls in the 80s. Most Americans know that.”
The DOGE Caucus, which formed earlier this year with the stated goal of cutting waste and improving performance in federal agencies, originally drew bipartisan interest. Led by Republican members and backed early on by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the caucus pledged to find $1 trillion in government savings. But according to Moskowitz, the group has fallen dramatically short of that mark and has devolved into dysfunction.
“They said they were going to find a trillion dollars,” Moskowitz said. “They fell 85% short.”
The congressman criticized the caucus for holding only two meetings and said Congress was left out of much of the process, which he characterized as dominated by the executive branch and private interests. With Elon Musk reportedly distancing himself from the group, Moskowitz likened the collapse of the effort to a “national divorce.”
“I’m a child of divorce, okay?” Moskowitz said. “Who’s going to get big balls in the divorce? The children always get caught in the middle.”
He pointed to the state of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an example of how the caucus has failed to deliver. “Certainly we’ve not made FEMA more efficient,” he said, referencing recent criticism of the FEMA administrator for appearing unaware of hurricane season.
Mocking the caucus’s rebranding tactics, Moskowitz joked, “If you want to drop the E from DOGE because we’ve not done efficiency, that’s fine. We can rename it. They’re great at that.”
He also took aim at the recent $9 billion recission bill championed by Republicans — a bill which includes controversial cuts such as eliminating federal support for Sesame Street’s Elmo character. Moskowitz contrasted that small savings figure with what he called the “big bloated abomination bill” that he says would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt.
“$9 billion versus $2.4 trillion,” he said. “Then they want us to cheer for them and give them a trophy like they’re a 5-year-old at a soccer game.”
Moskowitz called on Republican colleagues to work with Democrats on a bipartisan commission to address the national debt and budget deficit — issues he said the DOGE Caucus had failed to tackle meaningfully.
“This has to be done together,” he said. “I asked the Speaker to put together a budget commission, to get Democrats and Republicans on a bipartisan basis to tackle the debt.”
In closing, Moskowitz reflected on his decision to join the caucus despite criticism from his own party. “I took a lot of crap for it, by the way,” he said. “But I joined because I believed in the idea. Unfortunately, that idea has been buried — and rigor mortis is setting in.”
