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First bill of TX 89th Legislative Session signed into law, creating a DOGE-like Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office.


Summary: On Wednesday, 23 April 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the first law of this year’s legislative session, a bill creating a new regulation-cutting agency inspired by Elon Musk’s federal Department of Government Efficiency. Senate Bill 14, which passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan supermajorities, establishes the “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” at a cost of $22.8 million over the next five years.


• Latest Update: 30 April, 2025

• Note: Willow Park Civics is about Willow Park but is NOT associated with or managed by the City of Willow Park -- or any other government office or government official. Please contact your elected government representative with questions or directed comments.






First bill of TX 89th Legislative Session signed into law, creating a DOGE-like Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office.


On Wednesday, 23 April 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the first law of this year’s legislative session, a bill creating a new regulation-cutting agency inspired by Elon Musk’s federal Department of Government Efficiency.  [1]


Senate Bill 14, which passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan supermajorities, establishes the “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” at a cost of $22.8 million over the next five years.


As members of the 16-member Tarrant County House and Senate delegation, TX Senator Phil King and TX Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, played central roles in shaping business and regulatory policies. Capriglione is also chairing a DOGE panel in the House, the Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency, which was created at the outset of the current session. [2]


Mike Olcott, the House Rep for Texas House District 60, which includes Willow Park, is a member of the newly created Texas House DOGE. [3]


The “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” will be charged with helping other state agencies identify “unnecessary and ineffective rules.” It will also advise agencies on ways to make regulations more effective, streamline the regulatory process, reduce department costs and increase public access to regulatory information. [1]


Willow Park Civics Sources and Resources

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed the first law of this year’s legislative session, a bill creating a new regulation-cutting agency inspired by Elon Musk’s federal Department of Government Efficiency. [1]

“Texas DOGE will lead to spending cuts, regulation cuts and a more user friendly-government,” he said. [2]

Senate Bill 14, which passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan supermajorities, establishes the “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” at a cost of $22.8 million over the next five years.  [1]

Abbott signed the bill with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dustin Burrowsand the bill’s sponsors — Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, and Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford — by his side. [1]

As members of the 16-member Tarrant County House and Senate delegation, King and Capriglione play central roles in shaping business and regulatory policies. Capriglione is also chairing a DOGE panel in the House, the Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency, which was created at the outset of the current session. The committee will parallel the cost-cutting initiatives that are now part of the governor’s office,

The “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” will be charged with helping other state agencies identify “unnecessary and ineffective rules.” It will also advise agencies on ways to make regulations more effective, streamline the regulatory process, reduce department costs and increase public access to regulatory information.


Signing the first major law of the 2025 Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott on April 23 authorized the creation of a “Texas-style” DOGE agency charged with upending wasteful regulations seen as threatening the state’s reputation as one of the nation’s most business-friendly. 

The two North Texas lawmakers who guided Senate Bill 14 to passage — Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, and Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake — stood behind the governor as he signed the bill. 

Influenced by Washington’s DOGE initiative, which has made national headlines for Austin-based billionaire Elon Musk, the new law creates a regulatory efficiency arm of the governor’s office designed to lead the state’s hundreds of agencies and departments into a new era of money-saving efficiency.


[3] Texas House has a DOGE, and Willow Park's Mike Olcott is a player. Willow Park Civics Blog, posted 07 March 2025

Mike Olcott, the House Rep for Texas House District 60, which includes Willow Park, is a member of the newly created Texas House "Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee" or DOGE; he asks Citizens to report government waste. The new TX House DOGE has pledged "to closely scrutinize the inner-workings of state government, which is expected to consume more than $320 billion over the next two years." If any of y’all are aware of government waste, feel free to reach out to my office at (512) 463-0656. I am already coordinating with other members of the committee to develop strategies of how best to detect government fraud, waste and abuse," Olcott reported in his 03 March Newsletter. [1] Other committee members agree. [1]


• Olcott Newsletter: Monday, 03 March 2025, Willow Park Civics Blog, posted 06 March 2025, Excerpt

DELIVERY OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY COMMITTEE (DOGE)

"I am super excited to be a member of the Texas DOGE committee! Cutting spending and making government more efficient is a passion of mine and the hope is to parlay those achievements into providing more property tax relief to the hardworking citizens of Texas! If any of y’all are aware of government waste, feel free to reach out to my office at (512) 463-0656. I am already coordinating with other members of the committee to develop strategies of how best to detect government fraud, waste and abuse."


The new congressman says his mission is to expose financial corruption and fight back against government waste.


The state’s newly empaneled House Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee gets down to work this week in what its leader says will be a long overdue assault on bloat, red tape and excessive spending throughout Texas state government.

Chaired by Southlake Republican Giovanni Capriglione and featuring three other Tarrant County House members, the so-called “DOGE” committee will hold its first hearing Wednesday with testimony from more than a dozen state agencies in its opening review of what could be a wholesale evaluation of operations.

The review is expected to be a two-year process, covering the current 140-day session that ends in June and the legislative interim between this session and the next in 2027.

The 13-member committee is patterned at least in part after the highly publicized Trump initiative, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, which has already threatened the jobs of more than 200,000 federal workers and is working to cut more than $1 trillion from the federal government.

In addition to Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ creation of the Texas DOGE panel — composed of eight Republicans and five Democrats — comparable efforts are underway in nearly 10 other states in response to Trump’s outcry against “bloated” and “sloppy” government.

... pledge to closely scrutinize the inner-workings of state government, which is expected to consume more than $320 billion over the next two years.

Tinderholt said in a statement to the Report that he particularly wants to “take a closer look” at agencies that aren’t subject to the state’s biennial sunset review process “so we can provide proper oversight to these agencies and ensure they’re operating at maximum efficiency.”

Another committee member, Houston-area Republican Briscoe Cain, expressed skepticism that DOGE will make serious headway during the 140-day legislative session and may choose to leave the heavy lifting for the interim period.

• Conservatives clinch longtime goal of booting Democrats from leadership ranks in Texas House, The Texas Tribune, 23 January 2025

The House will have fewer permanent committees than last session, with lawmakers abolishing and condensing its previous 34 standing committees to 30. Lawmakers created an entirely new committee on “Delivery of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, in a nod to the new federal group run by tech billionaire Elon Musk. That committee will focus on eliminating inefficiencies in state services as well as overseeing open government matters and the regulation of the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence.


Most legislation on Patrick’s list had yet to be filed; the only details were his office’s informal titles for each bill, such as for Senate Bill 14: “Texas DOGE – Improving Government Efficiency.” Some priorities were linked to spending items outlined in the first drafts of the state budget filed by lawmakers last week, including an effort spearheaded by Patrick to create a $3 billion dementia research institute.


• Texas Gets Its Own DOGE, Austin Chronicle, 20 February 2025

House speaker expects it will “make headlines” every week

Burrows praised the committee chairman Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, as “literally made for this committee.”

“I spoke with him yesterday. He has already found great, great opportunities,” Burrows told the crowd. “I predict Gio is going to make headlines every single month and week that he is in there for the next two years rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. And I'm really excited to see what he does.”


On Feb. 14 Capriglione tweeted a photo of a dodgeball bearing the Texas flag. He wrote: “The 5 D’s of Doge: doge, discover, disrupt, deliver, doge. Members of the Texas House Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency are already working hard and making plans to deliver!”





The new legislative panel has been tasked to reduce the size and scope of government. But Democrats say they’re not interested in replicating Musk’s slash-and-burn approach.


Cornyn has also joined Abbott in calling for the federal government to reimburse Texas for Operation Lone Star and is a founding member of the DOGE Caucus, aligning himself with the cost-cutting mission spearheaded by Elon Musk.



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