'The fiscal responsibility of the state allows the Florida DOGE Team to be more surgical,' a DeSantis spokesperson says.

The federal Department of Government Efficiency has turned Washington on its head, pushing mass layoffs and firings at agencies, cancelling contracts and riling advocates of cherished programs that have been set for the chopping block.

Florida has its own DOGE effort, which has been more subtle – at least so far. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who set up the initiative in February , believes that’s because Florida is in better fiscal shape than the federal government.

“The fiscal responsibility of the State allows the Florida DOGE Team to be more surgical in its review of financial records, compared with the federal DOGE efforts, which have been forced to take drastic and sweeping measures due to the fiscal irresponsibility in D.C. over the last many decades,” DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best said in an email.

DeSantis has pointed to almost $1 billion in savings turned up by the Florida DOGE, led by Eric Soskin , who has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and been Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation. But the vast majority of the $878 million he refers to wasn’t yet distributed to Florida and was simply budget authority to use federal funds for refugee and transportation programs.

The savings for federal taxpayers won’t help bridge the bitter stalemate over the state budget between the GOP-led state House and Senate, and the Florida DOGE teams are unlikely to find enough major cuts quick enough to break the deadlock.

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has demanded a permanent sales tax cut to help drive spending cuts. Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, is concerned such a big cut – the House’s initial budget carried a $5 billion cut to the sales tax – would leave the state with too few resources to provide services to a growing population.

A “framework” for a budget deal that included a smaller sales tax cut was upended when DeSantis said he’d veto any sales tax reduction over concern it would preempt his push for property tax cuts.

Democrats in the Legislature, fretting drastic cuts, aren’t sweating the potential effect of the Florida DOGE’s efforts, at least not yet.

“(DeSantis) was trying to mimic the federal government with their DOGE but didn’t think it through, much like the DOGE at the federal level which has just taken a chainsaw to federal government,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said in an interview. “But here in Florida there’s been, I think, ideas or concepts of a plan for what DOGE will do. But we haven’t seen any execution.”

Out of the $878 million touted by DeSantis as the Florida DOGE cuts so far, $558 million was intended for a refugee program funded by the federal government but administered by states.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order shuttering the program, which is being challenged in court. But as recently as three years ago the DeSantis administration was asking for more money for the program.

Money originally requested to deal with refugee health assessment backlog

In 2022 the DeSantis administration asked the Legislature for $33.4 million more for the program than originally budgeted to address a backlog of 51,000 refugees waiting on health assessments and immunizations.

Florida rejected another $320 million intended for a carbon reduction program under President Joe Biden. About $50 million of that had been issued to the Florida Department of Transportation, but DeSantis had been trying to return that money and reject the rest of the state’s allocation since 2023.

He said after meeting Elon Musk – the de facto leader of the federal DOGE – earlier in the year, the federal government was able to take it back.

DeSantis’ DOGE executive order directed the effort to probe state colleges and universities. So far the teams have turned up an $800,000 federal grant at the University of West Florida tied to diversity, equity and inclusion programs that are banned in Florida schools.

In addition to the colleges and universities, the Florida DOGE order also specifies local governments should be scrutinized for savings.

According to DeSantis’ office, 30 counties and 40 cities and special districts have agreed to work with DOGE teams to find bloat in the budgets. But Florida already audits colleges, universities and local government entities.

Moreover, Florida already has a board dedicated to wringing out savings from the state bureaucracy – the Florida Government Efficiency Task Force . The 15-member board convenes every four years. Its members are appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate president.

In DeSantis’ time in office, the panel has met twice and issued two reports: The one issued in 2020 is eight pages long . The latest one, issued in 2024, is five pages long and its suggestions only deal with the state’s long range planning documents.

By comparison, the report issued in 2012 is 136 pages long and contains detailed suggestions on how to save money. It includes an estimate that its recommendations will save the state $3 billion over four years – something lacking in the last two reports of the task force.

It's unclear how much the new DOGE efforts are anticipated to save Florida taxpayers. Best, the DeSantis spokeswoman, didn’t answer when asked if there was a goal for DOGE to find in savings.

But she said the Florida DOGE’s efforts have generated “more than 60 actions which are providing improved value to Florida taxpayers, with examples including IT license optimization, workspace right-sizing, and deployment of contract methodologies which improve delivery time and reduce unnecessary costs,” Best said. More than 100 additional actions are on the way, she added.

DeSantis’ executive order calls for the DOGE teams to submit a report with recommendations by Sept. 30. Meanwhile, amid the budget deadlock, Driskell said that while drastic cuts are still possible, they won’t likely come from the Florida DOGE effort.

“There's still time on the clock for that. It just seems though DOGE has not been a factor in conversations so far,” Driskell said. “Because the plans have been so poorly outlined and thinly articulated it’s difficult to understand how they could have any impact.”

Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at . Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer .