Hilbert said his chamber’s new Government Efficiency Portal piggybacks on the incoming Trump administration's new Department of Government Efficiency, abbreviated to DOGE (pronounced with a long o and a soft g, like the popular meme).
Run by Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, DOGE is not an actual government agency but an advisory board meant to guide the incoming president on how and where to cut federal spending.
Hilbert is asking Oklahomans how their state government can do the same.
“We want to ensure our state government is working as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” he said in a Tuesday press release. “As lawmakers, we want the assistance of Oklahomans who have first-hand experience with duplicative and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars."
Examples of that waste will be submitted to House leadership for review in connection with next year’s budget allocations.
In addition to Hilbert, those leaders will include House Appropriations Committee Chair Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, and Vice-Chair John Kane, R-Bartlesville.
In the same press release, Kane hinted at the portal being reopened to the public before each legislative session.
"Every January we have an opportunity to walk through budget requests with state agencies, and we will have the ability to ask about these constituent submissions directly in an effort to make the government as efficient and effective as possible,” Kane said.
Tuttle Republican Sen. Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton — Speaker-Elect Hilbert's counterpart across the rotunda — has also expressed interest in improving government efficiency.
Like Hilbert, Paxton said his chamber is taking a preemptive interest in learning how to reduce waste within government.
“As I travel throughout my district — and running for Pro Tem I have been running all over the state — you hear a lot of complaints from the private sector in Oklahoma about a lack of government efficiency,” Paxton told reporters during a short press conference on the day of the Senate’s Swearing Ceremony.
When it comes to what government “efficiency” means, Hilbert said in a phone interview the specifics are pending use of the portal and regular budgetary discussions during the legislative session.
He pointed out efficiency doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of state agencies or other government infrastructure to save money. It could mean building up capacity to ensure the state collects all the taxes it’s due.
“One of the very first bills I ran was for Oklahoma to establish field offices throughout the country to collect taxes owed within the state of Oklahoma from businesses that operate within our borders that are headquartered out of state,” Hilbert said. “What happens is companies that are headquartered in Oklahoma are paying the appropriate amount of taxes, and then you have companies that aren't even based in Oklahoma with an unfair advantage.”
For now, the portal open to the Oklahoma public — and beyond — is what Hilbert called his chamber’s “4 million-plus member advisory board” on how to clean up government.
When asked, Hilbert said a smaller, uber-wealthy and business-minded advisory board, like the one Trump has for himself, isn’t something he’s personally envisioned for Oklahoma. He said he'd entertain the idea of bringing together some of the state’s top entrepreneurial leaders and doing something similar.
He said a dedicated effort to maximize the use of tax dollars is the focus.
And while the House press release hints lawmakers are setting the stage to use a reduction in government "waste" as a justification to cut taxes, Hilbert said he’s waiting for the revenue projection numbers from the Board of Equalization before he opens that can of worms.
“We've seen where Ramaswamy and Musk have been doing that at the federal level,” he said. “And, you know, inevitably, as they come up with ideas, they're going to be some ideas that are good and other ideas where we need to say ‘hang on a minute. There's a reason that we do things the way we do them.’”
Reduced government spending and a lower tax burden are just two ways the Republican supermajority in Oklahoma's legislature is aligning with big-picture goals expressed by resident-elect Trump.
"We hope to capitalize on the momentum we are seeing on the federal level with the efforts of President Trump at DOGE, and the national priority they have set to reduce waste," Hilbert said.
