Sen. Joni Ernst to helm Senate DOGE Caucus, huddles with Ramaswamy to slash government
She’s about to become the top watchdoge in the Senate.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), 54, will take charge of the newly formed Senate DOGE Caucus and collaborate with tech guru Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to “cut pork” in the federal government.
“Iowans elected me with a mandate to cut Washington’s pork and make ’em squeal! From billion-dollar boondoggles to welfare for politicians and trillion-dollar slush funds, my decade-long investigations have exposed levels of abuse that are almost too insane to believe,” Ernst told The Post.
“The Senate DOGE Caucus is ready to carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat and get Washington back to work for Americans.”
So far, the Senate DOGE Caucus will include Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.)
The Hawkeye State senator met with Ramaswamy Thursday evening and discussed plans she had to “rein in the bureaucratic state” inspired by her decade-long crusade against federal waste.
During her run for the US Senate in 2014, Ernst made a national name for herself when the then-state senator cut an ad recounting how she “grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm” and declared that “Washington’s full of big spenders — let’s make ’em squeal.”
Since then, Ernst’s office has been doling out the “Squeal Awards,” spotlighting bloat and inefficiencies. During her meeting with Ramaswamy on Thursday, Ernst discussed some of her findings with the “Squeal Awards” and ways the Senate can partner with DOGE.
Ernst plans to use her decades conducting research for the “Squeal Awards” as something of a blueprint to ensure that DOGE won’t be “all bark and no bite,” a source told The Post.
The Iowa Republican had previously met with Ramaswamy multiple times during his 2024 GOP presidential bid during some of his swings through the Hawkeye State.
Ernst had abstained from making an endorsement during the 2024 Iowa GOP primary but backed President-elect Donald Trump once it became crystal clear he had a lock on the nod.
Shortly after his Nov. 5 election victory, Trump, 78, announced Musk, 53, and Ramaswamy, 39, would lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is supposed to wrap up its work by July 4, 2026.
DOGE, whose name is inspired by the Dogecoin cryptocurrency and various internet memes, is technically not a government department, but rather a nongovernmental advisory group.
On the House side, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will helm the House Oversight Subcommittee Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), to similarly assist Musk and Ramaswamy in rooting out government waste.
While DOGE has been roundly cheered by conservatives, the group is not without its skeptics.
During the 2024 campaign homestretch, Musk predicted that he could slash as much as $2 trillion from the $6.75 trillion annual federal budget. But critics have pointed out that’s more than the government’s $1.6 trillion annual discretionary spending, including on the military.
About two-thirds of federal expenditures are on mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as well as interest on the debt.
Musk and Ramaswamy have already begun recruiting for DOGE, calling for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
The two bombastic entrepreneurs unveiled their plans for DOGE in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, which entails maximizing efforts to slash government via the executive branch and ruthlessly fighting to defend it in the courts.
In addition to cutting spending, it will be aimed at curtailing red tape.
“When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress,” the pair wrote.
“DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion-plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have also mined for ideas for ways to slash government, reaching out to individuals such as former presidential hopeful Ron Paul and others.
Efforts to rein in government spending and regulation come as the national debt exploded past $36 trillion last week.
Several prominent Democrats have also expressed interest in cutting government waste while maintaining heavy skepticism about the approach Musk and Ramaswamy will take.
Last week, Ernst, the outgoing chair of the Senate GOP Policy Committee, was bested in her race for Senate Republican conference chair by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
