A member of New Mexico's congressional delegation will play a role in DOGE subcommittee

A New Mexico congresswoman will be the top Democrat on a new subcommittee created to work with President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump created a Department of Government Efficiency via executive order Monday, a cost-cutting initiative that will be headed by controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk. House Republicans created a new congressional Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency last week to work with Trump’s DOGE. It is a subcommittee of the existing House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., will serve as ranking member, the subcommittee’s Democratic leader. She said there are endless opportunities for making the federal government more efficient, and DOGE could work on modernizing agencies, combining agencies with similar responsibilities, improving IT systems, improving agency acquisition processes or streamlining statutory authorities.

“We need a federal government that works for every single American, and so if that is the assignment in front of the DOGE subcommittee, I am 100% in,” Stansbury said. “I am here to do that work, ... but I think that we’ve seen even in the last 24 hours, that is not what Donald Trump and his allies have planned for the federal government. If they do not come to this work in good faith, we are prepared to fight them every single step of the way.”

Stansbury plans to advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government and for federal employees, a workforce Trump has promised to cut.

The subcommittee will be chaired by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who said in a statement she is proud to lead it.

“Together, we will strive to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement within federal agencies, ensuring that the government operates efficiently and transparently for the American people,” Greene said in a statement.

DOGE is named after an internet meme and a cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, which Musk has frequently promoted. Trump’s DOGE will “implement the president’s DOGE agenda, by modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” the executive order reads. The order renames the existing United States Digital Service to the United States DOGE Service and tasks it with modernizing federal technology and software.

Stansbury is concerned about Musk’s leading role.

“I think the other aspect of the DOGE effort that is highly, highly problematic is that it is the brainchild of Elon Musk, who, of course, is a billionaire donor to Donald Trump,” she said.

Stansbury previously worked as a budget examiner in the White House Office of Management and Budget. She also previously ran for House Natural Resources Committee leadership but withdrew when it became clear she did not have the votes.

Cathy Cook is a news reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com.