[Originally published on weareiowa.com]
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds testified before the U.S. House Oversight Committee Wednesday to discuss what the state has done to streamline government spending.
Reynolds was one of three witnesses at the hearing dedicated addressing to government efficiency and waste.
“Gov. Reynolds has instituted numerous reforms to reorganize state level operations to better serve the people of Iowa,” said Committee Chair James Comer , R-Ky.
The hearing comes as President Donald Trump recently established the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Trump tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead the organization, which is not an official government agency.
During the hearing, Reynolds largely focused on her administration’s successes, including tax reform and substantial government realignment.
“Iowa was doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Reynolds said in her opening statements, a phrase she also used in her 2025 Condition of the State.
Reynolds said government realignment, which was implemented in 2023, significantly reduced government waste by reducing the number of cabinet level positions, merging agencies and eliminating more than 500 unfilled positions. The governor claimed these actions allowed the state to lower its income tax from about 9% to 3.8%
“When we started our alignment work in 2022, state operations had not been reviewed for 40 years and it showed,” she said. “Layers of bureaucracy had accumulated over decades, expanding government beyond its core function. We were too big, too fragmented and too inefficient.”
By consolidating the state government, Iowa’s governor told the committee the state was better able to serve Iowans.
“We’re more responsive, we’re more effective, we’re serving citizens better,” Reynolds said. “And again, not only are we returning taxpayer dollars back to our citizens and continue to reduce the tax burden on them, but we’re also utilizing those dollars in a better manner.”
While Republican lawmakers largely questioned Reynolds on her successes, Democrats used their time to highlight the differences between the governor’s approach and that of Trump and Musk.
“You worked with the legislature and passed legislation in your state legislature to make the broadest changes you wanted to make. That is not what is going on right now with DOGE,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. “You even mentioned at the beginning of this hearing, you were so proud to say that you did this all without massive layoffs, without forcing a large percentage of your workforce to leave, because you saw them as valuable. I respect that, Governor. I respect you for that. That’s not what’s going on here at the federal level.”
When Reynolds was asked whether or not she allowed an outside firm to access state government payment systems, as Trump has allowed Musk, she said no.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. asked Reynolds if she believed the Lutheran church or Lutheran Family Services were money laundering operations, referencing a post Musk shared on X. Reynolds declined to answer.
Other Democratic lawmakers asked Reynolds about Trump’s statements on eliminating FEMA and an Iowa law changing the state auditor’s power. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, asked Reynolds if she signed a bill limiting the state auditor’s ability to hold government officials accountable.
“A bill was signed to restrict,” Reynolds said before she was interrupted by Brown. The representative responded, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
State auditor Rob Sand, in an interview with Local 5 after the hearing, accused the governor of finally admitting what he’s been saying all along.
“This is one of those things where I think people say a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth,” Sand said. “It’s pretty safe to say that that’s what happened today.”
Democrats also asked the governor about her controversial Education Savings Account program and the fate of federal employees in Iowa.
“Iowa has 10,000 federal workers,” said Brown. “Which federal jobs do you think are redundant? The staff providing care to veterans at the VA facilities in Des Moines and Iowa City? The USDA experts supporting your state’s farmers? Or the social security staff ensuring payments reach seniors? Let’s be clear: what is happening. This is not about rightsizing the federal government. It is about gutting it.”
Throughout the hearing, Reynolds emphasized her belief that bringing in a third-party consultant to identify government waste was a major part of the solution.
“When you’re in it, you see it one way, and you get accustomed to what you’re doing,” she said. “I think it’s beneficial to have somebody from the outside come in and take a look at some of the practices and some of the initiatives and how we’re operating.”
Watch the full hearing here.
