Dear Colleagues,

The work that must be done won’t do itself. We must act, and we must act now. No more thinking, no more debating—it’s time to move forward and make it happen.

And yet—we hesitate.

Why? Because we lack commitment. Because we lack discipline. Because we lack courage.

But it all starts with honesty. We must stop lying to ourselves. Stop pretending that kicking the can down the road is governing. Stop believing that endless committees and commissions will fix what is fundamentally a legislative failure. The people didn’t send us here to pass the buck. They sent us here to do the work.

This isn’t just about efficiency. This is about governance. It’s about a legislature that has abdicated its responsibilities. Instead of leading, we have deferred. Instead of making hard decisions, we have created programs and bureaucracies to make them for us. And in doing so, we have allowed government to grow beyond its means, beyond its purpose, and beyond its rightful authority.

The failures of government inefficiency, overreach, and unchecked bureaucracy were not created overnight. Legislatures of the past have passed this legacy down to us—layer upon layer of inefficiency, commissions, and deferred responsibility. And now, it falls to us to fix it. We did not create this mess, but we have inherited it. The question before us is: will we continue the cycle, or will we be the ones to finally correct the course?

DOGE—the Department of Government Efficiency—is being proposed because we have failed to do our job. But let’s be clear—no department can restore the balance of power, rein in government overreach, or ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly. That is our duty. If we had done our job, DOGE wouldn’t even be up for discussion. Instead, we have allowed bureaucracy to expand unchecked, and now we are left trying to fix the very mess we enabled. It’s time to stop relying on more government to fix government and start governing the way we were elected to.

If we are serious about restoring our Constitutional Republic, then we must be serious about our own role in that process. We cannot hand this over to another task force. We cannot delay it with another study. We must act.

I refuse to be apathetic. I refuse to abdicate my responsibilities. I refuse to let another layer of government solve problems that we—as elected representatives of the people—were sent here to solve.

We were placed in these seats for a reason. We have a duty. Yet too often, we fall prey to an instinct that tells us we’ve done enough. That we’ve given it our best shot. That we can step back and let someone else handle it.

That instinct is a liar. A saboteur. It tells us to settle, to compromise, to accept the status quo.

I reject that instinct. And I urge you to reject it too.

The tools are here. But we must learn to use them. We must unlearn old habits—habits of deferral, habits of dependency, habits of legislative passivity.

We were not elected to maintain the status quo. We were elected to make things right. Past legislatures have handed us this challenge, but we have the choice to either perpetuate the same mistakes or break free from them. The tools are in front of us, and the responsibility is ours.

This is not just about efficiency. This is about accountability.

This is about whether we, as legislators, will restore the people’s trust by restoring the power they gave us.

So let’s stop stalling. Let’s take back our responsibility. Let’s get it done—here, now, and for the future of our Constitutional Republic.

Sincerely,

Representative David J. Leavitt

District 25, Seat B
Idaho House of Representatives

700 W Jefferson St. Boise, ID 83702
Statehouse (208) 332-1182 (Session Only)

Committees:

Agricultural Affairs
Commerce & Human Resources
Health & Welfare