Strengthening Welfare: How DOGE Can Help Open Doors to Work and Opportunity
By Randy Hicks
Originally published on February 3, 2025, in The Well News
As Department of Government Efficiency representatives make their rounds in federal agencies, one of their first priorities should be looking into the U.S. welfare system, which costs taxpayers $1.6 trillion per year.
DOGE representatives will likely have a hard time navigating what program or agency they should start with. As millions of welfare recipients know firsthand, DOGE can’t simply head to the Department of Health and Human Services to solve the problem — the safety net system is not stationed under one agency but rather spans numerous departments that have interrelated purposes but separate and often conflicting operational structures.
Since the adoption of the first federal welfare program in 1935, the safety net has grown into a convoluted maze of more than 80 programs, including 20 that provide education assistance, 17 that provide housing and 16 that offer various social services.
Millions of Americans navigate this complex web each day. They devote hours to calling or visiting multiple departments and sorting through overlapping or duplicate requirements and paperwork — all to make ends meet.
This fragmented setup could be left alone if we think the best we can do for people in poverty is to give them only enough to survive. But if there’s any reverberating takeaway from the last election, it’s that Americans expect their leaders to do everything in their power to tear down barriers to opportunity.
Randy Hicks is the president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Center for Opportunity.