Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes her own 'DOGE' advisory body to mirror the Trump Administration's newly proposed advisory body

The word "DOGE" has spiked in trends as a form of cryptocurrency, a meme and now an acronym for an advisory body for the incoming president.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced her plan to establish a state advisory body called DOGE during her 2025 Condition of the State address.

The acronym stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, which was created by President-elect Donald Trump to identify and eliminate waste in government spending. The advisory body will be led by Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Reynolds said Iowa's DOGE will focus on identifying savings and efficiencies in both state and local government. The Republican supermajority in the Iowa Legislature is prioritizing lowering property taxes in the 2025 session.

The state passed a massive state government reorganization plan in 2024 that eliminated 67 boards and commissions, merged a number of others and reduced the membership of several boards.

"And to build on our success, I’m launching our own State DOGE, to find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government," Reynolds said Tuesday evening. "Because to pass meaningful property tax reform, we also need to be lean at the local level."

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Iowa lawmakers also established the State Government Efficiency Review Committee. Every four years, the new committee reviews the remaining board and committees to determine whether it should continue to exist.

Reynolds highlighted Iowa's efforts in government efficiency during her Condition of the State address, saying the state has been "doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing."

The term "DOGE" has also gained attention in recent years as a cryptocurrency and a meme.

Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in 2013 as a joke, and it became one of the most popular meme stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cryptocurrency gained steam around the same time as GameStop, AMC and other seemingly forgotten stocks rose thanks to small-pocket investors on Reddit, such as the influencer known as Roaring Kitty.

Institutions like GameStop and AMC became a part of popular culture through memes, GIFs and celebrity endorsements, such as Mark Cuban and Snoop Dogg, who both joined the Dogecoin hype.

But no celebrity had a greater impact on Dogecoin than Musk, who was even accused of insider trading by investors in June 2023 over his antics.

Musk changed the logo of Twitter to Doge's logo and had Tesla announce that it would accept the cryptocurrency as a means of payment for the company's merchandise, the Guardian previously reported.

Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of the $258 billion federal lawsuit this past August after the court ruled he did not defraud investors by hyping up Dogecoin or conduct insider trading, according to Reuters.

The Doge meme itself became popular online in the early 2010s, according to Know Your Meme.

Internet users circulated zoomed-in photos of a dog's face with his eyebrows raised, and the meme was born.

The dog, named Kabosu, was a Japanese Shiba Inu who lived to 18 years old before his death earlier this year.