Idaho Republican legislators were so inspired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—the illegitimate DOGE that’s been taking a chainsaw to vital government programs—that they created House Bill 364 to create an official Idaho DOGE to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse in the state government.
The Senate never took up a vote on House Bill 364 and it died.
But having an actual legal mandate never stopped Elon Musk’s DOGE, so why should it stop the Idaho version?
The Idaho Capital Sun reported on the announcement by Idaho’s Republican leaders that they just went ahead and created the Idaho DOGE anyway.
A couple of quotes in the story caught my attention. First, one of the Republican leaders of Idaho DOGE, House Speaker Mike Moyle:
“Idaho’s Legislative DOGE Committee is a significant move towards streamlining government operations and enhancing State efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said in a written statement.
Mike Moyle, is married to former House Rep. Janet Trujillo. He lives in Star, which is just 20 miles from the Capitol. She maintained a residence in Idaho Falls, roughly 250 miles from the Capitol. In 2017, she claimed the extra $6,400 in per diem the legislators get when they maintain a second residence in Boise for the legislative session. Except her second residence in Boise was Speaker Mike Moyle’s house where she slept for free.
Do you suppose the Idaho DOGE will be tackling that sort of fraud and abuse?
Then there’s the House Republican Caucus Chair, Rep. Jaron Crane:
“We have talked a lot about eliminating redundancy, cutting back on red tape, and the responsibility we have to prevent waste,” Crane said in a written statement Thursday. “Since 1974, there has been no reconstruction on Idaho’s government at all, that was under Gov. Cecil Andrus. That was the last time we looked at reorganizing the government and making it more efficient.”
Redundancy, you say? Too much red tape? Reorganizing Idaho government to make it more efficient? Well, do I have an idea from Nebraska for you! It’s called a unicameral legislature and it happens when we take either the Idaho House or the Idaho Senate and just do away with it altogether.
At the federal level, our House and Senate make sense as separate bodies. The House is the voice of the People, where representation is proportional to population. California gets 52 representatives, Wyoming gets 1. The Senate is the voice of the States, where each state is equally represented by 2 senators.
But in Idaho, the state is divided into 35 legislative districts of roughly equal population. Each district elects two representatives to the House and one senator to the Senate. So, the House is the voice of the People and the Senate is… the voice of the People, but half as loud?
Ah, but in the federal Congress, the representatives serve only two-year terms, while the senators serve six years. Is there a similar seniority for Idaho senators serving longer terms than the representatives? Nope. Both representatives and senators serve two-year terms.
There’s your redundancy! The very fact that this DOGE bill you created in the House stalled out in the Senate is a perfect example of red tape. How about reorganizing the Idaho government to make it more efficient by proposing a constitutional amendment to abolish the Idaho House? You’ve just saved on 70 redundant positions making $19,913 per year—that’s almost $1.4 million right there. Then, there’s savings of the per diem of $74 per day for the lawmakers living within 20 miles of Boise and $221 per day if they live farther away while crashing at their husband’s house for 70 people over 80 days, that’s got to be close to $1 million there. Then, add in the costs of all the printing and offices and staff, why, I’ll bet you could round up another $600 thousand. There’s $3 million taxpayers’ dollars every year we could save!
Do you suppose Idaho DOGE will take up that redundancy and waste?
