Gianforte Applauds DOGE, Pledges Montana’s Support To Cut Red Tape

Gianforte Applauds DOGE, Pledges Montana's Support To Cut Red Tape

Invites collaboration with Musk, Ramaswamy to streamline government

• January 07 2025

HELENA, Mont. - Governor Greg Gianforte today sent a letter to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chairmen of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), praising their efforts to reduce spending and offering the State of Montana's assistance in reducing red tape.

"In your new roles, you face an enormous challenge in reducing spending that has left us more than $36 trillion in debt, eliminating the unnecessary bloat of the administrative state, and cutting regulations that hold back American innovators, businesses, and workers," Gov. Gianforte wrote. "As a businessman and entrepreneur, I know that cutting unnecessary, burdensome regulations is central to opening the doors of greater opportunity for our citizens to achieve the American dream."

In his first week in office, Gov. Gianforte established the Red Tape Relief Task Force through executive order to conduct a comprehensive, top-to-bottom review of regulations in every state agency. Led by Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras, the task force worked with legislators to introduce 188 red tape relief bills in the 2023 legislative session, over 170 of which were signed into law by the governor.

Taken together, the bills simplify and modernize code, make government more efficient, and create greater opportunity for Montanans. As a result of these efforts, Montana has rolled back, reformed, and repealed one-fifth of regulations on the books.

The governor continued, "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."

Touting the success of the Red Tape Relief Task Force and the pro-jobs polices enacted working with the legislature, the governor pointed to how the American dream is coming into greater reach for Montanans, writing, "Thanks to our policies, more Montanans are working now than ever before, wages in Montana have grown at the second fastest rate in the country, and we've had record job and business creation. We've delivered historic pro-family, pro-jobs tax cuts, with more on the way. We've balanced our budgets, held state spending under inflation, and paid off the state's debt."

The governor concluded the letter by inviting Musk and Ramaswamy to Montana to discuss areas of collaboration and to share Montana's experience with them as they take on the "challenging process to reduce the administrative state, get spending, deficits and the national debt under control, and ultimately unleash American opportunity."

The governor's full letter may be viewed here.

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