Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) thinks it’s time for Alabama to follow the lead of President Donald Trump’s administration when it comes to making government more efficient.
Trump has tasked Elon Musk to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on the federal level. Gudger believes that the concept can be utilized on the state level through various existing legislative mechanisms.
“[A]s everyone came into this session for the state legislature, they were very aware that the Trump administration has the energy and the momentum behind them,” Gudger said on FM Talk 106.5 Wednesday. “For the first time…government is going to be more efficient, is going to have transparency, and they’re going to be able to work together. Something that they’ve never been able to do before. So this momentum that we have in the state legislature is because of the Trump administration is contagious, and then you can feel it.”
Gudger explained how they’ve already set up a DOGE like process when it comes to licensing and board reforms. In addition to contract review, the sunset process plays a key role in maintaining government transparency and efficiency in Alabama. The sunset process involves a regular, comprehensive review of state agencies, boards and commissions to assess their effectiveness, efficiency and continued relevance. Agencies must demonstrate their value and justify their continued existence before their authorization is renewed by the Alabama legislature, ensuring operations remain efficient.
“We had some great people that were chairmen of those committees, but they were not digging in to the part of being efficient and making sure that the boards, agencies, commissions that handle the money, that’s one arm removed from the State House, but they are boards that people have to get licensed for any occupation within the state,” he said. “They now have chairmen that are over those committees on contract review and on sunset, that they’re digging into each one of these boards, agencies and commissions, and finding where the corruption is, taking that wasteful spending back out, and making sure that they have to run their boards efficiently.”
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“That has not happened in 20 years,” he added. “And so we have a small portion of the DOGE committee already, and we set that up two years ago, and we’ve been working and if you saw the sunset committees, there’s a lot of people kind of running for the hills because they realize they can’t do what they want to anymore because the legislators are paying attention to it.”
Gudger also said it is past time to review the efficiency and find waste throughout the entire state government.
“I think that we are being more and more efficient,” he argued. “I think we need to go in every agency right now and do a full audit. I don’t think we have an Elon Musk here right now that can give his time with a billion dollars and without getting paid to do what he’s doing, but I do think that we have already started that process here in the State House.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
