“For the first time in decades, we are going back to the idea of right-sizing government,” said Congressman Gabe Evans, when asked by a conservative news host for his thoughts on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The headlines about the misleadingly named budget-slashing project may be winding down since Elon’s retreat from D.C., but the real-world impacts of his tech bros’ firing sprees and funding freezes are being felt across the country, including in Evans’ own district.
Last week Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) published a searchable database of all the federal funding cuts in Colorado. The total doesn’t include expected impact from the budget reconciliation bill, such as massive cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, energy tax credits, and tax changes that will severely reduce Colorado’s general fund. Nevertheless, there are still over $15.7 million in cuts to federal programs in Evans’ district since Trump took office. The state has successfully challenged some of them in court, but most of those are merely paused pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
Let’s look closer at some of the DOGE damage in Evans’ Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD8), which is located mostly north and east of Denver.
One of the earliest DOGE actions was to freeze federal medical research funding via the National Institute of Health (NIH), a decision described as having a “crushing effect” on Colorado’s health and economy, according to Rocky Mountain PBS. Among those institutions affected is the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, which has received multiple NIH grants for disease research.
In March, DOGE cut the USDA’s $1 billion school lunch program that helped schools serve locally grown food to students. Colorado schools, as well as local farmers, were counting on millions more this year, with the losses hitting rural schools hardest, reported the Colorado Sun. The Greeley-Evans School District 6 lost $238,000.
Speaking of farmers, DOGE’s attempt in February to gut the USDA, including its Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) field office in Brighton, was initially blocked by a federal judge, but then the Supreme Court allowed all firings of probationary workers to go through in March. The NRCS grants, totalling about half a million dollars, were used to help farmers conserve soil and water on their land.
DOGE attacked Americorps in April, cutting 85% of the national staff and nearly all of its funding, despite data showing over a 34x return on investment. It operates dozens of programs ranging from public health to preschool education to senior centers in nearly every county in Colorado, including all three in CD8. Colorado sued the Trump Administration to protect this funding, and earlier this month, a judge granted a preliminary injunction to pause the cuts until she hears the case.
The largest individual program cuts were made to electric vehicle infrastructure — charging stations — in Adams ($2.9 million) and Weld ($1.6 million) Counties. The same counties also have a combined $2.6 million in Homeland Security funding that the state considers “at risk,” but not necessarily gone forever.
Contacted by two constituents concerned about these and other DOGE-directed cuts, Evans responded with identical language, characterizing the cuts as [rooting] out waste, fraud, and abuse:
“Thank you for contacting me regarding the functions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” Evans wrote in his emailed response, obtained from a source. “I appreciate hearing from you regarding your thoughts and concerns on this matter.
“Multiple surveys and polls have indicated that over the past four years, Americans have grown increasingly concerned with the rapid expansion in the size of the federal government and the massive increase in federal spending. In response to these concerns and to promote the responsible use of taxpayer dollars, a team of vetted government employees operating under the ‘DOGE’ umbrella have been examining various agencies across the U.S. government to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. The purpose of these reviews is to ensure that each government agency maximizes the integrity of their goals with no bloat in their agencies.
“As has been repeatedly certified by the Executive Branch, these examinations are conducted in a professional manner that will abide by the same standards as any other government agency. For the employees of DOGE to perform their functions, they have been designated as ‘special government employees.’ This role demands the same ethical standards of privacy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest assessment, and professionalism of other government employees. Each are also subject to the same security obligations and ethical requirements, including a Top-Secret security clearance.”
Evans’ assertion, made in March, that DOGE team members have been “vetted” and have fulfilled their security obligations including obtaining Top Secret clearances is at odds with much earlier reporting and statements from numerous elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) that many of the young programmers, some still in their teens, are accessing highly sensitive government systems without any such oversight.
Evans use of the phrase “waste, fraud, and abuse” in his letters defending DOGE to constituents repeats what is essentially a DOGE catchphrase, so much so that it appears in the entity’s pinned post on its X account.
Tomorrow morning the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing that literally defines its work with that same phrase: “Locking in the DOGE Cuts: Ending Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for Good.“
The catch, of course, is how one defines waste, fraud and abuse. When DOGE touts its billions of dollars in cuts, it’s including all of the terminated grants and fired employees listed above in one of those three categories. It’s also worth noting that DOGE isn’t the only context in which “waste, fraud and abuse” appears. Evans uses it nearly every time he defends a vote to cut Medicaid, be it his support of the House budget resolution back in February, or his vote to advance the BBB out of committee in May.
The ultimate impact of the Musk-managed, AI-fueled “efficiency” cuts, whether to cancer research, school lunches, or farmland conservation, can’t be fully assessed for years, particularly when the cuts involved firing local workers or, perhaps ever, when they hampered medical research.
That said, the world’s richest man did help at least one CD8 resident. Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, donated $870,000 to Evans’ campaign, which breaks down to about $335 for each of the 2,448 votes that made up his winning margin.
