New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has taken a page from the DOGE playbook, announcing a new Commission on Government Efficiency, or COGE. Mamdani explained COGE’s functions in an X post.
“This morning we are introducing COGE — the Commission on Government Efficiency. This Commission will find ways for our city to work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people. New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are,” Mamdani wrote.
“COGE will hold hearings in every borough and meet with union members, community organizers, and working people who will shape how we build a more responsive and accountable government. The future of this city will be built by all of us, together,” he added in a follow-up post.
COGE will be chaired by Patrick Gaspard, according to the Independent. He previously worked as executive director of the Democratic National Committee and served as a close aide to former President Barack Obama.
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The first public hearing for the new initiative will be held on June 9, according to CBS News.
What happened to DOGE?
The new initiative sounds similar to the Elon-Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, created shortly after Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The administration said it aimed to slash government waste, but was accused of cutting the federal workforce and dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, a congressionally authorized agency.
According to NBC News, over 300,000 federal workers and contractors were ousted during the DOGE cuts.
DOGE turned out to be highly unpopular. 47 percent of voters thought the initiative was cutting too much, a poll from The Center Square released in April 2025 revealed. Musk had a net approval rating of 35 percent in a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll back at the time.
The survey showed that 46 percent of Americans strongly disapproved of the way Musk was handling his job in the Trump administration, while another 10 percent somewhat disapproved.
However, Musk left the Trump administration in May 2025. In November. DOGE disbanded, eight months before the initiative was supposed to end.
“That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters at the time.
