New Texas DOGE office opens, director appointed

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(The Center Square)  – A new state agency being compared to the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is gearing up after a new law went into effect and a new director was appointed.

Earlier this year, the Texas legislature created the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office (TREO) to identify and eliminate unnecessary regulations in state agencies.

“Texans deserve a government that protects individual liberty and fosters economic opportunity,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. “Through the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office, we will cut red tape, streamline regulations, and put a check on the growth of the administrative state to keep Texas the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Abbott appointed Jerome Greener as TREO’s first director. Greener was previously the executive vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Prior to joining TPPF, he was the Texas director for Americans for Prosperity and worked for Americans for Prosperity Action. 

“With a proven record of championing limited government and commonsense public policy, Jerome is an exceptional choice to lead TREO as it works to ease burdens on Texans and make government leaner, faster, and more accountable,” Abbott said.

The state legislature created TREO during the regular legislative session when it passed SB 14, filed by state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, and state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake. Abbott signed the bill into law in April; it became effective Sept. 1. 

The new law directs TREO to assist state agencies with identifying and repealing unnecessary or ineffective rules and issuing best-practice guidelines for agencies to adopt new rules and perform a range of required analyses like cost and employment impact statements. It also directs TREO to determine regulatory costs imposed on taxpayers to eliminate or reduce them, according to the bill language.  

It also requires the Department of Information Resources and the Secretary of State to work with TREO to create a user-friendly website for users to search state rules, identify regulated activities or businesses or other topics.

The new law also created a seven member TREO advisory panel that is “administratively attached” to the governor’s office. All members are appointed; three by the governor, and two each by the lieutenant governor and House speaker. The law directs the governor to appoint an individual who received an occupational license from a state agency, another who represents “state agencies that adopt rules,” and a higher education institution research employee who “has experience addressing issues related to state agency rules.”

Those appointed by the lieutenant governor and House speaker must represent regulated small businesses, large businesses and members of the public. 

The new law doesn’t appear to require TREO to identify waste, fraud and abuse in state spending. It expands the size of government and increases state spending.

One of the biggest critics of TREO has been state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, who argues TREO grows government, expands the executive branch, increases spending by $130 million, and adds more than 100 bureaucrats, citing the bill’s fiscal impact statement.

Harrison, who voted against the bill, said one of the worst parts about the new law is it codifies Chevron deference, which the Supreme Court ruled against. Chevron deference was a practice courts used for decades, effectively deferring to agencies to interpret ambiguous statutes. The Supreme Court ruled courts can no longer do that.

“So for all the talk about we don't want to make Texas like DC,” the new law “puts Texas to the left of the federal government when it comes to issues of regulatory reform,” Harrison said.