Work underway by Iowa’s anti-Semitism and government efficiency task forces

DES MOINES — Recently created state task forces designed to explore government efficiency and combat anti-Semitism have begun their work, state officials say, albeit with little or no public notice.

The Iowa DOGE Task Force, created in February by Gov. Kim Reynolds, met for the first time in April as it works to find ways for the executive branch of state government to work more efficiently, including with local and federal government partners.

The Anti-Semitism Task Force, created last year by Attorney General Brenna Bird, has held meetings and communicated regularly as part of its stated purpose to address anti-Semitism in Iowa, her office said.

Iowa DOGE Task Force

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Reynolds created the DOGE Task Force by executive order and named it similarly to the federal Department of Government Efficiency created by President Donald Trump and headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The 16-member state task force includes Iowa leaders in business, education and elected office. Of the members, 11 are elected Republicans or have donated thousands of dollars to Iowa Republicans, including Reynolds. The task force includes two non-voting members from the Iowa Legislature.

At the first of four planned meetings, the task force last month clarified its focus and laid out its goals for the coming months. The task force has been instructed to create a report with recommendations for Reynolds and lawmakers to consider.

The task force has been charged with finding opportunities to increase government efficiencies, especially in workforce and technology, that will provide a better return on taxpayer investment, according to materials presented to the task force at its first meeting. Its recommendations should be forward looking and designed to provide tangible results and be sustainable.

The task force is an extension of Reynolds’ work in recent years to reorganize and streamline the executive branch of state government. Through legislation and executive orders, Reynolds and state lawmakers have reduced the number of cabinet-level state agencies from 37 to 16, eliminated 600 state government jobs by not filling open positions, removed more than 1,200 regulations, cut or consolidated 111 state boards and commissions and identified more than 4,700 acres of state-owned farmland to sell.

“I don’t think any of this would have been possible if we would have just tried an incremental approach. I think it was critical that we went big and just really tackled it,” Reynold told the task force during its April meeting. “Think big. When you get ready, be disruptive. Challenge us. Make us be more like a business. And when you go to file the report, be bold and transformative, because that’s what we’re looking for.”

The task force’s initial meeting in April occurred with little public notice outside of a posting on a page created for it on the state’s website. The meeting was not listed on Reynolds’ public schedule that week, even though she spoke at its meeting.

The task force tentatively is scheduled to meet again June 4.

Iowa Anti-Semitism Task Force

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Bird created the Anti-Semitism Task Force in May 2024. Bird said she established the task force to address a rise in anti-Semitism across the country since the military conflict that began with the October 2023 attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 8,873 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2023, the most ever recorded by the advocacy organization. More than 5,200 of those incident were recorded after the start of the military conflict between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

The task force will educate Iowa officials in higher education, law enforcement and attorneys about anti-Semitism, the Attorney General’s Office said. The task force is comprised of Bird plus roughly a dozen leaders in state government, law enforcement, education and Iowa’s Jewish community.

The task force has met on an as-needed basis and maintains regular communication, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. The group is working with the Iowa Department of Education to develop new educational materials, the office said, and has made presentations at continuing legal education trainings for the Attorney General’s Office and Iowa County Attorneys Association. The presentation includes case studies on how to identify and prosecute cases of anti-Semitism.

There has been no apparent notice of any of the meetings held by the Anti-Semitism Task Force. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office did not respond to The Gazette’s questions about how many times the task force has met, what kinds of discussions the group had, whether any meeting minutes were recorded and whether the meetings were announced in advance as required by the state’s open meetings law.

“It’s clear that hate and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place here in Iowa. We condemn that in the strongest possible terms,” Bird said during a May 2024 news conference announcing the task force. “And we are going to do everything that we can to stand strong and make sure that Iowa is a beacon of light for the rest of the country to follow when it comes to getting rid of this anti-Jewish hate, the anti-Semitism that we are seeing creeping into our society.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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