GOP lawmakers want to bring DOGE, MAHA movement to Kentucky. What does that look like?
Republicans in the Kentucky legislature want to create state efforts that mimic two of the highest-profile actions of Republican President Donald Trump’s second term so far.
Republicans in the House and Senate have filed efforts to establish a state version of the Department of Government Efficiency and create a Make America Healthy Again Kentucky Task Force.
Both have similar goals to DOGE, the efficiency-focused group led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who helped catapult Trump to office, and the ‘MAHA’ movement behind newly-minted Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield filed Senate Bill 257 Tuesday to create a Kentucky Office of Government Efficiency in order to “streamline operations, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively.”
The Senate Republican Majority Caucus said her bill “aligns with the broader national effort led by President Donald Trump to cut bureaucratic red tape and make government work for the people . . . by creating a dedicated department focused on identifying inefficiencies, recommending improvements and implementing best practices, Kentucky is taking a proactive approach to smarter governance.”
The office created by Tichenor’s bill would operate under the Auditor of Public Accounts. Part of the bill charges the auditor, currently Republican Allison Ball, with conducting “performance audits and operational reviews of state agencies to identify inefficiencies, waste and opportunity for cost savings,” as well as “develop and recommend best practices for streamlining government operations” and report those findings to the executive branch and the Legislative Research Commission.
In an interview with the Herald-Leader, Tichenor said Ball fully supports the bill and helped craft it.
Elected to office in 2022, Tichenor said that “you can’t help but work here for any amount of time” and not notice government waste.
As for where the future cuts might come from, she mentioned the state’s massive pension systems, the unemployment insurance program and the state’s Medicaid spending — the latter, she said, could change depending on how the Trump administration reforms the program.
The largest spending item in Kentucky’s General Fund budget by far is K-12 education, totaling about 39% of all spending. That’s followed by Medicaid at 18.6%, criminal justice at 12.9% and postsecondary education at 10.3%.
The cuts could affect education, particularly the amount of money spent on administrators, Tichenor said.
It’s apparent those dollars could be better used “when you look at the amount of money that we spend on education right now and you couple that with the results we’re seeing in education,” she said. Tichenor was a vocal supporter of Amendment 2, a ballot initiative rejected by Kentucky voters in November that would have allowed lawmakers to spend public dollars on nonpublic education.
A companion House Concurrent Resolution 50 was filed by House Republicans to form a new 10-member task force: the Kentucky Discipline of Government Efficiency, or KY DOGE.
“This initiative will review Executive Branch spending to enhance efficiency, cut waste, and prioritize essential services, ensuring Kentuckians’ tax dollars are used wisely in our 2026 Budget,” freshman Rep. TJ Roberts, R-Burlington, said in a statement of his concurrent resolution, co-filed with Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville.
Members of the task force, appointed by leadership, would include eight members of majority party — four from the House and four from the Senate — as well as two members of the minority party, chosen by House and Senate minority floor leaders. Republicans currently control about 80% of the legislature.
Hodgson and Roberts, like Tichenor, highlighted a need to eliminate “waste” by cutting down “inefficiencies.”
“We are trustees and stewards of the Commonwealth’s resources, therefore ensuring our state government operates efficiently is our inherent responsibility,” Roberts said Tuesday. “Doing so ensures that those resources — funded by taxpayers — are used effectively to provide essential services without unnecessary waste.”
Due in part to the legislative nature of the program — spending is usually only tweaked during even-numbered year budget sessions — the timeline of any spending change that impacts the state budget is much longer than the pace at which Musk’s team has tried to move.
The Musk-led DOGE has stirred controversy in Washington, with Republicans cheering it on while Democrats have protested their actions.
The group, staffed by a cadre of young engineers from Musk companies or other Silicon Valley ventures, has worked to lay off a large chunk of the federal workforce as well as offer widespread buyouts. It has also carried out a handful of significant budget cuts, though it has inflated the numbers on some.
Trump has continued to tout the work of DOGE through the early days of his presidency and Musk himself, who owns the massive social media site X, has dominated the headlines as well as social media.
Kentucky MAHA
Using the momentum of Trump’s Make America Healthy Again movement — and his executive order forming the Make America Health Again Commission — led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Kentucky GOP wants to create a task force to carry out a statewide MAHA initiative.
House Concurrent Resolution 41 from Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, and Senate Concurrent Resolution 61 from Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, would “explore ways to integrate the principles of the Make America Healthy Again movement to improve health outcomes of Kentuckians,” according to the language of both resolutions, which are identical.
The key to achieving this goal includes promoting “health freedom by allowing individuals to make informed choices about their health care” by:
- Minimizing “population exposure to environmental toxins and pollutants”
- Supporting “policies that increase access to clean, whole foods . . . to enhance nutrition and reduce diet-related diseases”
- Encouraging “access to local, fresh produce in schools, communities and markets through farmers’ markets and farm-to-school programs
- Promoting “public health efforts to educate Kentuckians on healthy living, good nutrition and chronic disease prevention” in part by “reducing reliance on highly-processed, high-sugar products through education and policy incentives.”
The Make America Healthy Again Kentucky Task Force would include a series of state department heads and commissioners, as well as three members of the Senate and three members of the House.
Funke Frommeyer said it’s particularly needed in Kentucky.
“Our health is our greatest asset, and it’s time we take bold steps to reclaim it. With some of the highest obesity and chronic disease rates in the nation, Kentucky must prioritize nutrition, fitness, and smart policies that empower individuals to make healthier choices,” Funke Frommeyer said in a statement.
The federal plan has come under fire from some health experts for going too far, or for being a front to deny evidence-based methods of keeping disease spread at bay, such as vaccinations. Before he suspended his Democratic campaign for president, RFK, Jr. peddled the long-ago disproven theory that “autism comes from vaccines.”
Other health experts have criticized the broader intention behind MAHA and Kennedy’s intentions as HHS secretary as one of rooting out industry cabals that want to lie to the public about medication or health care. On Wednesday, Kennedy vowed to scrutinize causes for childhood chronic diseases, saying nothing is “off limits” and by promising to examine “formerly taboo or insufficiently scrutinized” areas.
“He’s saying that all the scientists before him who have weighed in on the validity of these causes have all been in the pocket of somebody — but not him, he’s going to look behind the curtain, he’s going to tell us what the real truth is,” Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and vocal Kennedy opponent, told the New York Times.
Part of the federally-established MAHA commission’s charge includes, “restoring the integrity of science, including by eliminating undue industry influence, releasing findings and underlying data to the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, and increasing methodological rigor.”
Funke Frommeyer has also publicly questioned the importance of vaccines.
She’s a co-sponsor of this session’s Senate Bill 177, which would make it illegal to administer any mRNA vaccine, including a COVID-19 vaccine, to any child under age 18. It would also block schools, workplaces and medical institutions from requiring a vaccination for enrollment, hiring or medical treatment.
In 2024, during a debate on House Bill 274, which is now law and allows Kentucky pharmacies to vaccinate children ages 5-17 with parental or guardian consent, Funke Frommeyer said the measure was “not promoting health of our children. This is not promoting health for our families.”
Funke Frommeyer was also a co-sponsor of a 2024 bill that didn’t ultimately become law but would’ve prevented any Kentucky school or workplace from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine.
During a floor debate on that bill, Funke Frommeyer said the number of children with disabilities and learning challenges is “staggering” and asked if it has to do with food additives and dyes. She also alleged that “pet vaccines are actually safer than our people vaccines.”
Kentucky needs a “wellness revolution,” she said, but asked, “Does it start by an injection into your body?”
One of Frommeyer’s biggest legislative pushes has been to promote freestanding birthing centers, facilities that provide birth services outside of a traditional hospital setting.
Lockett has made news of late both for his policy priorities and his political future.
Last summer, he pushed back hard on a single-person, floor-to-ceiling stall bathroom concept plan for a Lexington middle school, claiming that the bathrooms were gender neutral; the bathrooms were not gender neutral, according to Fayette County Public Schools.
The Central Kentucky legislator has been one a handful of names floated to replace 6th Congressional District Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, if Barr decides to pursue a run for the U.S. Senate. Lockett told the Herald-Leader he’d “take a very hard look at” the seat if it opens up.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 11:12 AM.
