NC’s own DOGE? Republicans advance bill giving auditor more power to recommend job cuts
North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill to give the Republican state auditor more power to recommend job cuts and even the wholesale elimination of entire state agencies — a move critics have compared to Elon Musk’s sweeping cuts to the federal bureaucracy with DOGE.
The bill, called the DAVE Act, would create a new Division of Accountability, Value and Efficiency — an acronym referring to the newly elected state auditor, Dave Boliek.
It would require all state agencies to submit a report to the new division including an explanation of its use of public funds as well as a list of all positions within the agency that have been vacant for six months or longer. The division would then be empowered to use artificial intelligence to “assess the continued need for each state agency and the vacant positions within each agency.”
Boliek, who spoke at a committee hearing Wednesday in favor of the bill, acknowledged that his office already has most of the powers included in the DAVE Act through its usual auditing processes.
“What this bill, however, does is it puts the legislature together with the executive branch in the state auditor’s office to get real results,” he said.
An amendment to the bill approved Wednesday would “sunset” the new division in 2028 — days before Boliek’s term as auditor ends.
Bill advances over Democrats’ objections
Republicans on the Senate Regulatory Reform Committee advanced the bill over the objections of Democrats, who raised concerns about potential job cuts and the effectiveness of AI algorithms.
Sen. Sophia Chitlick, a Durham Democrat, noted that there are currently 14,000 vacancies in the state government.
“What happens to our economy when we cut out 14,000 middle-class jobs?” she said. “That seems like very dangerous thing to roll the dice on — given what’s happened with DOGE. And we do not need to look any further than our state for these examples of what happens when we let an algorithm take control of our workforce.”
Last week, The News & Observer reported that massive funding cuts from the Trump Administration resulted in 80 job losses and $100 million in lost funding for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Sen. Caleb Theodros, a Mecklenburg Democrat, said he thought the bill lacked transparency about how AI would be used to identify inefficiencies or potential job cuts.
“I think AI should be used for good governing,” he said. “(But) I think without it having some kind of constraints within the bill, it’s a bit too broad, because there are some decisions a human has to make.”
Senate leader Phil Berger, the primary sponsor of the bill, dispelled concerns over the bill by saying that it would not give the auditor or any AI program the final say in cutting any jobs or agencies.
“He has the authority to identify problems and any discharge or any elimination of positions would be left up to the General Assembly,” Berger said.
But critics also raised political concerns about the bill, with Sen. Lisa Grafstein, a Wake Democrat, questioning the decision to name it the DAVE Act and noting that the division would expire right before Boliek’s term ends.
“This bill strikes me as not really getting at efficiency, but getting at really kind of a political approach to some of the work that we’re here to do,” she said.
More power for NC state auditor
The bill is the latest move by Republicans to give new powers to the auditors office, a push they began after Boliek flipped the agency to Republican control after it had been held by Democrats for 16 years.
In the final days of Republicans’ legislative supermajority last year, they passed a bill giving Boliek power over the State Board of Elections — making him the only auditor in the country with election oversight powers.
That bill is currently being challenged in court by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who would lose his power to appoint a majority of the board if the law goes into effect.
In a February interview with The N&O, Boliek said he was not consulted by lawmakers about the power shift but would carry it out faithfully.
At Wednesday’s hearing on the DAVE Act, Boliek again assured lawmakers his priorities were not political.
“My commitment is to do this in a non-partisan way that’s data-centric,” he said.
