WASHINGTON—Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) commented to Cactus Politics about the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) efforts, telling us he is "always going to be levelheaded" about where spending and efficiency cuts can be made without compromising essential services.
Rep. Ciscomani began by describing to us how "I cannot tell you the amount of people that came up to me saying, 'keep it up, we want this, we need it.' The government has been growing so much."
However, he noted that constituents also ask that Medicare and other government services remain intact, as rural areas benefit more from federal assistance.
"And that is why I have been very vocal about protecting Pell Grants and protecting Medicare. There are things we absolutely— Medicaid, specifically— that we need to be protecting," Rep. Ciscomani continued.
Nevertheless, the Arizona Congressman suggested that DOGE's cuts and President Donald Trump have been received positively, pointing to recent poll numbers showing an overwhelmingly positive reception to the President's recent joint address to Congress.
"It all shows that people are supportive of the direction that we are going in because it has been going in the wrong direction for so long that measures were needed," Ciscomani added.
Still, he reiterated the importance of how "as we take these drastic measures, I am always going to be very levelheaded in the sense of not cutting those services for rural areas and where they are most needed."
Cactus Politics asked Ciscomani if he had spoken with DOGE leader Elon Musk to make his voice heard, to which he responded, "What I have also been pretty upfront about is protecting our veterans and our VA services. That is an area that caught my attention, and we are looking at different plans out there. So I will stand the line on that and defend that."
The Arizona Congressman further described how his Congressional District has 23,000-25,000 federal employees, such as Border Patrol, the military, and a passport processing center, who "do amazing work" and are willing to cooperate in streamlining their departments.
"So I have got a lot of stake in this, a lot of skin in the game for my district to make sure that we protect these areas and what we advocate for. And thankfully, in the conversations that we have had with Elon Musk, especially and specifically the one we had last week on Wednesday, a lot of this was expressed, and they are listening," Ciscomani concluded.
