So, my advice? Track what’s happening in your state. Read your local news and follow the reporters online for real-time updates. Ask questions of your reps. Special sessions are a warning sign of problems lawmakers are struggling to solve, and often, of big changes to come.

These sessions can fly under the radar, but they’re where major decisions get made. If you're not paying attention, you might miss big changes to taxes, health care, education, or democracy itself.

To balance their budgets in the absence of federal support, states will have to either cut services they currently offer or find ways to raise new revenues. The special sessions are where lawmakers will debate their options.

But it’s not all nefarious. Many states are considering special sessions to figure out how to address the new costs put onto their states by congressional Republicans’ recent federal funding cuts to #SNAP, #Medicaid, and other priorities.

Texas, for example, began a special session Monday with state Republicans *explicitly* focused on redrawing voting districts to pick up more GOP congressional seats.
www.npr.org/2025/07/21/1...

Nearly 20 special sessions have been proposed already, with 7 states already setting dates. Special sessions mean lawmakers are being pulled back *off-schedule* — often to debate high-stakes issues without the usual public scrutiny or timeline.

Rather than establish new committees for the old work of efficiently balancing state budgets, lawmakers should focus on better raising revenues equitably to meet the needs of their constituents. Now is not the time for cuts, no matter what they’re called.

While we all want government to be efficient, the question to ask at the state level is whether further slashing budgets will actually achieve that goal.

States are already facing declining revenues, the fiscal consequences of their own tax cutting, and now, an indeterminate level of continued support from the federal government.
www.cbpp.org/blog/trackin...

Ironically, while conservative lawmakers may be hoping to gain favor with the Trump Admin through these state-level DOGE efforts, the work of DOGE at the federal level is already threatening state budgets.
www.cbpp.org/blog/sweepin...

For example, the group in NC is targeting government DEI programs. In FL, university spending is in the crosshairs. OK's DOGE Caucus will scrutinize state property taxes. And in IA, the state’s DOGE task force is comprised of governor-appointed private-sector business leaders.

Nearly all states with a DOGE counterpart also have a Republican trifecta & DOGE focus areas tend to align with GOP legislative priorities.

State-level DOGEs are adopting quirky new names for the same functions of fiscal oversight that have *always* existed in state governments — an odd approach if efficiency is truly the goal.

Like the federal DOGE effort, most state versions are not actual government agencies, but task forces or committees with dubious enforcement authority but broad power to determine their own scope of work in recommending cuts to public funding.
thehill.com/homenews/sta...

At best, this state push is an effort for conservative leaders to trade on the recognizable DOGE name while promoting cuts they already wanted to see in their states.

At worst, it’s a bandwagon effort to cut public services & equity efforts regardless of community impact.

At least 15 states have now established their own DOGEs — headed by conservative lawmakers and handpicked business interests — despite many already having government efficiency panels and watchdogs in place.
stateline.org/2025/02/04/r...