La. DOGE results in nearly a billion in savings says Gov. Landry

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Governor Jeff Landry says Louisiana’s version of DOGE has netted about a billion dollars in savings for the state’s government and ultimately taxpayers.

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“We have found hundreds of millions of dollars in savings within Louisiana state government,” Landry said.

In December 2024, Landry signed an executive order creating the state’s Fiscal Responsibility Program.

The exact amount of savings announced on Thursday is $999.5 million.

“We will achieve a billion in annual cost savings and efficiencies. That’s savings across only 17 departments. That’s just the governor’s cabinet. We have done so without any reduction in services,” said Angele Davis, who was among those tapped to work on La. DOGE.

Landry and Davis said people found to be ineligible for the government-funded Medicaid and SNAP, which is the food stamp program, were removed.

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“We have removed more people off the Medicaid rolls and the SNAP benefit rolls who are ineligible for that. What that means is that those people are greedy people who are taking from the needy people,” Landry said.

According to documents provided by the Landry administration, annual savings related to Medicaid eligibility is $285 million and $14.9 million for SNAP.

“We worked very close with SAVE on citizenship, and this has allowed Louisiana to unenroll ineligible SNAP participants,” Davis said.

Other steps were taken to achieve efficiency.

“These efforts include temporary pay initiatives aimed at reducing the payment error rate across SNAP, adding Equifax feeds to provide real-time income and household information, collaboration between Medicaid and SNAP eligibility workers,” said Bruce Greenstein, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.

In August 2025, LDH said it was trying to recoup $10 million mistakenly paid on behalf of dead Medicaid patients. The mistakes were discovered by the legislative auditor.

“Just think about it — if you’re deceased, incarcerated, no longer eligible for Medicaid, if you no longer live in the state, you shouldn’t be on the Medicaid rolls,” Davis said.

MORE: State-by-state breakdown of income needed to keep one parent at home

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services says it also found ways to save money and be more efficient.

“We aligned our hiring and training so that new staff move directly into learning and practice. Training time has been reduced by a third. That allows us to strengthen capacity while eliminating waste and delay. This is what efficiency looks like in child welfare,” said DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris.

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