Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced that he plans to join the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) Congressional Caucus if he wins his Special Election for CD-1 in 2025. DOGE Caucus members are made up of those who support President-Elect Donald Trump’s vision to cut government waste so that the federal government operates efficiently, effectively, and respects taxpayer money.
Patronis is the only candidate who is backed by Trump for the Florida Congressional District 1 special election.
To support the goals of DOGE, Patronis said today that he will propose the barring of telework for federal agencies whose total operating budget surpasses $1 billion annually.
Jimmy Patronis said, “If Washington had the customer service of a Mar-A-Lago and the operational output of a Tesla factory, then maybe Americans would feel better about how their taxpayer money was being used. But, that’s not the case. Americans are working long hours and sending their cash to a bloated, barely functioning federal bureaucracy. Reports that only 6% of federal employees are working in the office on a full-time basis are infuriating. It’s not sustainable. It’s horrible for developing team synergy, and frankly, when we’ve got men and women throughout the U.S. working hard jobs who can’t phone-it-in, so we don’t need the public servants who are supposed to support them working in their pajamas. If entire sectors of the federal workforce can telework, then those jobs should be contracted out. Let’s reduce the government’s footprint and return money back to taxpayers in the Panhandle.”
As Chief Financial Officer of Florida, Jimmy Patronis manages around 1,500 state employees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFO deployed teleworking strategies to maintain critical government service functions, and when the worst of the pandemic passed, the CFO brought his workforce back into the office and created a hybrid-teleworking agreement for a small number of employees operating the agency’s consumer helpline.
In addition to being endorsed by President Trump, other GOP leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer have endorsed Jimmy Patronis in the CD-1 race. The Special Primary Election Day is scheduled for January 28, 2025 and the Special General Election is slated for April 1, 2025.
