Rep. Tim Burchett Vows to ‘Raise Hell’ as He Targets Congressional Waste
By Jim Mishler | Tuesday, 27 January 2026 02:06 PM EST
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., chair of Congress’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), has vowed to “start turning some stones over” and “raise hell” as he works to expose wasteful spending by Congress.
In a video posted on X, Burchett told Benny Johnson: “We’ll make a lot of people uncomfortable when you start talking about a trillion dollars in duplication and waste.”
The Republican representative expressed frustration with the lack of accountability among lawmakers, stating: “We as elected officials don’t have the guts and the wherewithal. And that’s very unfortunate, and I’m frustrated like you, but I’m just gonna raise hell about it.”
Burchett also announced he would no longer work within conference committees: “I’m not going through our conference anymore. I’m gonna go straight to the public, because that’s what this social media is about. That’s the one thing they can’t control yet.”
He criticized Congress for unnecessary spending and provisions such as transgender-related language in bills without addressing them directly. “If you saw some of the gutless funding that’s in some of these bills,” Burchett said, “the transgender stuff that’s still in there, the other stuff that we allowed to be in there for no other reason than we don’t have the guts to call it out.”
When asked about members of Congress who had not taken action, Burchett told Johnson: “If you’re tired of fighting, you need to get your a home and sit on the couch and let somebody else do it.”
Burchett, who was named chair of the DOGE subcommittee in early January, promised to take a hard line on waste, fraud, and abuse. In a release, he stated: “The American people are fed up with wasteful spending and fraud in the federal government. Under my leadership, I will eliminate reckless spending, slash unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, and investigate the rampant fraud and abuse.”
