Why a Florida Democrat joined the DOGE caucus that's looking to cut federal spending

A new GOP-led congressional caucus that supports President-elect Donald Trump's push to cut trillions in federal spending has welcomed a Democrat.

This week, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida joined the Department of Government Efficiency caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Democrat to do so.

The caucus would partner with DOGE, the unofficial advisory body led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy tasked with regulating government spending.

Moskowitz, who represents a "middle of the road" Florida district that includes Boca Raton and Ft. Lauderdale, said joining doesn't mean he fully shares Trump's agenda.

"On some issues I'm progressive. On other issues I'm conservative, and I think that's how most of my constituents are," Moskowitz told Morning Edition. "We take it issue by issue."

In a conversation with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Moskowitz said the issues he cares about don't fall on just one side of the political spectrum and explained why he feels it's important for Democrats to be part of conversations about cutting spending.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity

Steve Inskeep: I'm really interested in how you phrased that. You didn't say on some issues I'm progressive, on others I'm more moderate. You said straight out conservative. You didn't choke on that word, which I think some progressives might.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz: When it comes to the budget, I think fiscal conservatism is a good thing. I think most Americans want to pay the least amount of taxes possible, but still get the most amount of services out of that. So if they're right on something, we should support it. We shouldn't just be the opposition party of "since they came up with it, we can't support it because we don't want to give them a win." But we also need to push back when they want to do stupid things.

Inskeep: Well, let's try to explain for people what this DOGE caucus is. The Department on Government Efficiency is an outside group Musk and Ramaswamy are leading under the auspices of President Trump. Ultimately, they make suggestions to Congress. And the caucus is volunteering to take in those suggestions, correct?

Moskowitz: I joined the caucus, which is just congressional members. We have lots of caucuses. We have the bourbon caucus, the dog caucus, the sneaker caucus, the Hispanic caucus, progressive caucus. Now, these caucuses don't have any power. This caucus has no power, does not take any votes. It's a group of members that get together and have conversations. Look, I don't know any American who thinks the government is perfect. If there are people with legitimate suggestions on how we can improve government efficiency, bring technology to government, or figure out where there's waste and fraud to save taxpayer dollars, we should do that. It shouldn't be a partisan issue.

Inskeep: Do you think you have the same idea of government efficiency as Musk does, based on some of his public statements so far?

Moskowitz: No, I'm sure there's lots of things that Elon and Vivek are going to propose that I'm going to say are wrong and will not work. And I look forward to that conversation. But when in America do we not even want to have the conversation? This idea of staying in your safe space and only talking to people you agree with didn't work for us in the last election. So we need to go into rooms and have comfortable and uncomfortable conversations.

Inskeep: Musk and Ramaswamy have talked about eliminating entire cabinet departments like the Department of Education, and getting rid of billions of dollars of veterans benefits.

Moskowitz: Twitter is not real life.

Inskeep: You don't think they really want to do that?

Moskowitz: They don't have the votes to do that. Just because they've made statements like that, I'm not willing to shy away from the overall conversation that government can't become more efficient.

Inskeep: In the statement you made saying that you were going to join the DOGE caucus, you didn't talk about eliminating entire cabinet departments. You specified that there were a couple of parts of the Department of Homeland Security that you thought were in the wrong place and ought to be moved. You seem to have a way more modest idea of what efficiency could mean.

Moskowitz: I've put forward that bill to remove FEMA from DHS since I've been in Congress. FEMA is becoming more and more important. Disasters are becoming bigger, and affecting greater areas. They're becoming more expensive. FEMA should be a cabinet level agency, and I don't think FEMA can do the job the American people need it to do as long as it sits in Homeland Security.

I also think, based on my experience with the assassination task force of Donald Trump, the Secret Service needs dramatic changes there. I don't think the agency will be able to remake itself in a giant bureaucracy of 21 other agencies. So my singular focus is to get those two agencies out of DHS and make them direct reports to the White House.

At the same time, if there are tens of billions, or hundreds of billions of dollars that we can save in agencies and still deliver the same services, why wouldn't we have the conversation? Just because we have the conversation doesn't mean we're gonna vote for it. They're gonna have these conversations. We should be in the room.

This story was edited by Obed Manuel. The radio version was produced by Lindsay Totty and Taylor Haney.