Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte gives his inauguration address at the Montana State Capitol on Jan. 6, 2025. (Micah Drew/Daily Montanan).
When former and newly-elected President Donald Trump takes office later this month, a new advisory committee known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will take shape to address wasteful spending on the federal level.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte in a Jan. 7 letter congratulated DOGE co-chairmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and offered his experience working on red-tape relief not just during his first gubernatorial administration, but during his brief tenure in Congress.
“With my first executive order and on my second day in office, I launched our Red Tape Relief Task Force,” Gianforte wrote. That initiative, led by Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, “rolled back, reformed and repealed one-fifth of regulations on the books and passed more than one hundred seventy red tape relief bills into law to eliminate unnecessary, burdensome rules holding back hardworking Montanans and businesses.”
The Republican administration’s efforts have yielded a record number of Montanans in the work force, wages growing at one of the nation’s fastest rates and record business creation, Gianforte said.
“None of our success, however, would be possible without cutting red tape and being strong guardians of taxpayer resources,” he said.
Gianforte also pointed to the years he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 2017-2020, when he led the Republican Study Committee’s Government Efficiency, Accountability and Reform Task Force.
“Our task force identified more than 100 common sense solutions to reform government power structure, practices, and personnel policies. The actionable, nonpartisan plan provided a roadmap for reclaiming government from unelected bureaucrats, making it more efficient and accountable to taxpayers,” Gianforte wrote. “To us, this just seemed like common sense, and outside of Washington, D.C., it is. Common sense, however, is not so common in Washington, D.C. where entrenched bureaucrats and well-heeled lobbyists will go to great lengths to protect their slice of the pie.”
The governor invited Musk and Ramaswamy to Montana to discuss how his administration could collaborate with DOGE.
“As you begin this challenging process to reduce the administrative state, get spending, deficits and the national debt under control, and ultimately unleash American opportunity, know that my administration and I stand ready to work with you and your team,” he wrote. “My door is always open.”