EXCLUSIVE: A Republican lawmaker has launched a new congressional caucus aimed at working hand-in-hand with President-elect Trump’s soon-to-be DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency.

Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., said he dispatched a “Dear Colleague” letter overnight Tuesday seeking other lawmakers to join him. The practice is standard for members seeking co-sponsors of legislation.

“Taking on Crazytown is no easy task,” Bean said. Thus far, Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Ralph Norman of South Carolina have joined the caucus. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas also filed to join as a caucus co-chair.

“Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will need partners in Congress to accomplish many of the cuts necessary to rein in the unelected bureaucrats who have had unchecked power for far too long.”

BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS ‘WREAKING HAVOC’ ON K-12 SCHOOLS: TOP LAWMAKER

Bean said the national debt’s $36 trillion level “should be a wakeup call for all Americans.”

“We must take action to avoid diving headfirst off the cliff of fiscal ruin… Our DOGE Caucus, will work closely with the Department of Government Efficiency to help rein in reckless spending and stop the abuse of taxpayer dollars.” 

Earlier this month, Trump tapped Musk and Ramaswamy to lead the “DOGE,” which the Tesla CEO has widely touted and begun soliciting civilian help for.

Trump said last week he hopes DOGE will become the “Manhattan Project of our time” – in reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s secretive atom bomb endeavor during World War II.

“Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time,” Trump said.

In his letter to colleagues, Bean lamented the $6 billion per day the U.S. has borrowed during the Biden-Harris administration, and added that interest accruals on the debt currently exceed the nation’s entire Defense Department budget.

“Republicans must live up to our principle of fiscal responsibility by reining in the spending that is driving both inflation and our unsustainable debt. The DOGE Caucus will bring together members from across our conference who are ready to rein-in unelected bureaucrats and end the over-regulation that has crippled American Main Street.

“When Republicans stick together, we win,” Bean said. “Join us in reclaiming our country and Making America Great Again.”

RAMASWAMY OUTLINES DOGE’S VISION

In the immediate aftermath of his solicitation being circulated, a representative for Bean’s office said they are still waiting for other lawmakers to take part.

Musk continued sharing examples of government waste he would like to see his new department take on, captioning “Drop the DOGE hammer” on X, formerly Twitter, above a retweet of a Washington Post headline reading “New report estimates U.S. fraud losses exceed $233 billion annually.”

Musk also shared a clip Monday of Sen. Rand Paul, R–Ky., speaking about government waste and describing a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism study that reportedly fed different types of booze to fish, captioned with a furrowed-brow emoji:

“Gin to a sunfish versus tequila – which would make the sunfish more aggressive?”

“Nearly a million dollars spent studying whether or not Japanese Quail, if you give ‘em cocaine… are more sexually promiscuous,” Paul added.

Elon Musk takes the stage during a campaign rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, 2024, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“Sounds like a job for DOGE!” the future department head said over the weekend of a report the Pentagon failed its seventh audit and was unable to account for part of its $824 billion budget.

Trump recently said Musk and Ramaswamy’s work will help the next generation have a solvent future.

“They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘We The People’,” he said on Nov. 12.

Trump added at the time that his aspiration is for the department’s collaborative efforts to culminate on July 4, 2026, in concert with the celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Trump, Musk and Ramaswamy via the transition team for additional comment.

WARNING: GRAPHIC

ATHENS, Ga. – Jose Ibarra, the suspect accused of killing Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley on Feb. 22, returned to court Tuesday for the third day of his trial as the state continues to bring witnesses forward. 

Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national, is charged with 10 counts in connection with Riley’s murder on the morning of Feb. 22, when Riley was out for her usual morning jog along trails on the University of Georgia campus near Lake Herrick. 

The state’s first witness on Tuesday, UGA Police Department Sgt. Sophie Raboud, testified that a suspicious person was seen on trail camera footage on the morning of Feb. 22, lurking between an apartment building housing UGA students on campus and the trails where Riley was eventually attacked and killed for about an hour.

The trail camera played in court on Tuesday shows the suspicious person — whom prosecutors allege is Jose Ibarra — as well as Riley and Riley’s roommates all traveling in the same area between the approximate hours of 6:50 a.m. and 11:50 a.m., Raboud said.

WATCH TRAIL CAM:

Beginning around 6:50 a.m., the suspicious person was captured slinking around in dark clothing and carrying a white cup near the bus stop area, which meets a pathway that leads to the back of Ibarra’s apartment complex. 

The video, which was played in court on Tuesday morning, also showed the person going to a student’s door six times before 8 a.m. That student testified on Monday afternoon that she heard and saw a suspicious person in dark clothing looking into her first-floor apartment windows and trying to break in. She called 911 immediately upon seeing the suspicious person. 

LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER JOSE IBARRA FLEW FROM ‘GROUND ZERO’ OF MIGRANT CRISIS TO GEORGIA

Among the 10 counts Ibarra faces is a “peeping Tom” charge in connection with the break-in incident, which prosecutor Sheila Ross linked to Riley’s murder, saying in her opening statements that Ibarra “went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus.”

Trail camera footage played in court Tuesday also shows Riley running at 9:06 a.m. on Feb. 22, just minutes before her 911 call at 9:11 a.m., toward trails near the same UGA bus stop where the suspicious person was lurking. She runs past other students on the trails, as well as a group of students waiting for transportation at the bus stop where the suspicious person was seen on the same camera just about an hour prior. 

An image displayed on a screen shows Jose Ibarra, who was seen wearing a hat that led the police to his arrest during the second day of his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Her mother, Allyson Phillips, cried in court as the footage of Riley’s final moments were played. 

“You’re making me nervous.”

— Allyson Phillip’s text to Laken Riley at 9:58 a.m. 

“You’re making me nervous. Not answering while you’re out running. Are you okay?” Phillips texted Riley at 9:58 a.m., according to Raboud.

Just after 11:30 a.m., Riley’s roommates can be seen on the trail camera going out to look for Riley with their dog. At 11:47, Phillips texted her daughter, “Please call me. I’m worried sick about you.”

Allyson Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, second left, listens during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga.  (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Just before 10 a.m., Riley’s mother, who frequently spoke with her daughter while Riley was out running — and had in fact spoken to Riley just when the 22-year-old left home to go on her jog — began to show signs of worry that Riley was not picking up her calls, according to cellphone data analyzed by Raboud.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, the courtroom heard details about Riley’s autopsy, as well as details about a microanalysis of small fibers and hairs on certain pieces of evidence. 

Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) investigator Anne Kisler-Rao said she inspected the long, dark hairs that were wrapped in a button on a dark jacket that officers located in a dumpster in of Jose Ibarra’s apartment complex. She said 21 of the total 29 hairs on the jacket were consistent with Laken Riley’s hair. She also testified that there would have to be “some sort of force” to remove those hairs from her head because their roots were still intact.

Riley’s younger sister cried in court while details of her death and evidence from the crime scene were discussed in court Tuesday afternoon. 

From left, Connolly Huth, roommate of Laken Riley, and Lauren Phillips, Riley’s younger sister, become emotional during the trial for Jose Ibarra at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga.  (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Hairs consistent with RIley’s were also found on rocks recovered from the crime scene, Kisler-Rao. Phillips cried quietly during the GBI investigator’s testimony. 

Lastly, Kisler-Rao told the court that she inspected Riley’s underwear, which had “damage is consistent with having been torn.” GBI medical examiner Dr. Michelle Dimarco testified before Kisler-Rao that she “did not observe anything that would make [her] believe there was a sexual assault” at the time of Riley’s murder.

Jose Ibarra appears at his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

GBI crime lab tech Katrina Ostapovicz was next to testify and told the courtroom that the dark jacket with hair on it, the rocks recovered from the crime scene and three gloves recovered from a bush near the same dumpster where the jacket was found all tested positive for “likely” blood. She submitted the evidence for DNA testing.

Ostapovicz also tested a black Adidas hat that Ibarra was seen wearing in iPhone photos he took the morning of Riley’s murder, and it also came up positive for blood.

The jacket tested positive for DNA matching Jose Ibarra’s DNA and Laken Riley’s DNA, according to GBI forensic investigator Ashley Hinkle. Additionally, the three plastic gloves tested positive for DNA matching Laken Riley’s DNA, the black Adidas hat with blood on it tested positive for DNA matching Riley’s, and rocks recovered from the crime scene tested positive for DNA matching Riley’s.

A hat allegedly belonging to Jose Ibarra is presented as evidence during the trial for Ibarra at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga.  (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Poo)

Riley’s fingernail clippings contained DNA matching Jose Ibarra’s DNA more than his younger brother Agenis Ibarra’s and his older brother Diego Ibarra’s DNA, Hinkle testified. 

“The match is 10 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in the population.”

— Ashley Hinkle of Jose Ibarra’s DNA in Riley’s fingernails

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“The DNA match between the wet, dry swabs, from [Riley’s] fingernail clippings from the right hand … was to Jose Antonio Ibarra,” Hinkle testified Tuesday. “The match is 10 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in the population.”

LAKEN RILEY MURDER TRIAL: PROSECUTORS PLACE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT AT SCENE IN OPENING STATEMENTS

The defense began questioning witnesses after 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Jose’s older brother, Diego, was their third witness. Diego walked into the courtroom at 4:30 p.m. wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles around his wrists. Diego is currently facing federal green card fraud charges for showing a false ID with two different birthdays to police when they arrived at his apartment to question him and his brothers on Feb. 23.

Diego’s defense attorney expressed to Jose’s attorney, John Donnelly, that Diego should not testify in Jose’s trial, Donnelly said. Judge Haggard advised that the court should not proceed with Diego’s testimony, and then the prosecution and defense met to discuss the matter behind closed doors.

Diego Ibarra is seen wearing a Chicago Bulls hat. (Middle District of Georgia)

The defense’s second witness, Stephanie Slaton, lived in an apartment next to the Ibarra family at the time of Riley’s murder. She testified that she spoke to Diego Ibarra on Feb. 23, the day after Riley died, while “a lot” police were walking around in the area of the complex. 

Diego Ibarra suggested he did not know why police were walking around and asked Slaton what had happened. Slaton, in turn, explained that someone had “passed away” behind their apartment complex. Two police officers then approached them and asked what they were talking about. Slaton answered them, and they walked away, she said.

Slaton then testified that Diego, whom she had a sexual relationship with at the time, used a translator app to tell her in English, “If you tell them, I will tell them you did it and then I will kill you too.”

On cross examination, Slaton admitted that she could not speculate what Diego meant by “if you tell them” because he had been unfamiliar with Riley’s murder and the reason police were walking around their apartment building. She also admitted that she had been angry at Diego for having relations with another woman.

On Monday, the second day of Ibarra’s trial, the court heard a recorded prison phone call between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, that was played aloud and translated by an FBI analyst who spoke fluent Spanish.  Judge Patrick Haggard on Tuesday ruled that the translated call could not be submitted as evidence.

Layling Franco walks outside a migrant shelter in Queens, NY on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Franco is the wife of Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was arrested in Georgia on suspicion for killing 22-year-old university student Laken Riley. (Brigitte Stelzer)

“She said that she thinks it’s crazy that they don’t have anyone else’s DNA. They only have his. And she says she doesn’t understand how someone can see someone dying and not calling [sic] 911,” FBI analyst Abeisis Ramirez testified in court on Monday while translating the call for the prosecution.

The call placed Ibarra at the crime scene, according to Fox News contributor Paul Mauro, a former executive officer for the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Operations and Analysis Bureau.

“She very clearly doesn’t believe him. … She says, at one point, ‘Jose, I know you,’ a very … telling moment,” Mauro said of the calling with Franco.. “And then at one point … the real crushing statement is when she says to him, ‘I can’t believe somebody could see somebody dying and not call 911.’”

Mauro said he believes the phone call seems to “be a reference to him having told her, I was there, I saw the body, but I didn’t call 911, and I didn’t do it.”

Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Feb. 22. An illegal immigrant has been charged with her murder.  (Laken Riley/Facebook)

“The most interesting thing, I thought, was actually the most prosaic, which is the fact that [Riley] has fingernail scrapings — she had skin under her fingernails — from fighting for her life, and Jose had injuries with having gotten those injuries from that kind of a fight,” Mauro said, referring to UGA Police Department bodycam footage played in court on Monday that showed investigators looking at Ibarra’s body for signs of injury.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED IN LAKEN RILEY MURDER ‘FAST-TRACKING’ TO LIFE IN PRISON: ATTORNEY

Bodycam footage from that morning show officers’ first encounter with Ibarra on Feb. 23. They initially arrived at the apartment around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 23 and questioned Jose’s brothers, Diego and Argenis Ibarra, before they obtained a search warrant and went inside the apartment.

WATCH: POLICE ENTER JOSE IBARRA’S APARTMENT:

The footage shows officers walking inside shining a light on Jose, who was in bed at the time, and repeatedly saying “hola” in an effort to wake him up. After about a minute, Jose gets out of bed and puts his hands up. 

“This is speculation, but I suspect he was likely highly intox[icated],” Mauro said, noting that investigators linked a white plastic cup containing a liquid smelling of alcohol to the scene of Riley’s murder. A suspicious male was seen holding a white cup in security camera footage taken near the crime scene that morning. Late on, investigators found a similar white, plastic cup that smelled of alcohol on Feb. 22, according to law enforcement testimony on Monday.

LAKEN RILEY MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN GEORGIA COLLEGE STUDENT SLAYING ASKS TO HIDE CERTAIN EVIDENCE

A general view of the area where Laken Riley’s body was found near Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Jose Antonio Ibarra has been charged with the murder of Riley after she was killed earlier this week. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

The suspect is charged with 10 counts total, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of hindering a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of being a “peeping Tom.” Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Prosecutor Ross said Ibarra then encountered Riley on her typical morning run and attacked her. 

Laken Riley’s killing has gripped the nation as the border crisis continues.  (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

“On Feb. 22, Jose Ibarra put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus,”  Ross said in her opening statement Friday.

Ibarra and his brothers, also in the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running.

LAKEN RILEY MURDER EXPOSED GLARING SECURITY LAPSES ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES, NEED FOR EMERGENCY BLUE LIGHTS

Jose Ibarra, accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, listens through an interpreter as he sits with his attorneys Dustin Kirby, second left, and Kaitlyn Beck, left, during his trial  at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

The defendant’s attorney, Dustin Kirby, argued in his opening statement that evidence would not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra killed Riley. He said it would take “gymnastics” for the prosecution to argue Ibarra killed Riley with what he described as “circumstantial evidence.”

“If that happens and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged,” Kirby said on Monday.

Jose Ibarra looks down as he listens through an interpreter during his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Poolv)

UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark previously described the murder as a “crime of opportunity” during a February press conference.

Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News.

Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)

Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly in a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.

ICE previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., took aim at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), arguing that its recent response to multiple deadly storms shows the agency needs to be “completely revamped.”

“The No. 1 thing that hurts FEMA’s reputation is the fact that so many citizens are denied when they apply the first time they come through the FEMA portal. And if they have to go through congressional offices to get help… if that is going to be the protocol for our citizens to get help, from the emergency management agency, then it needs to be completely revamped,” Donalds said during a House Oversight Committee hearing on FEMA Tuesday.

Donalds’ comments came during questioning of FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who was peppered by Republican members of the Oversight Committee to provide answers on FEMA’s response to recent storms and accusations that the agency discriminated against supporters of President-elect Trump.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS EYE FEMA FUND OVERHAUL AHEAD OF HIGH-STAKES HEARING ON HELENE RECOVERY

FEMA has been under fire over the agency’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which earlier this year made landfall in the southeastern U.S. and caused widespread destruction across multiple states.

While the agency’s overall performance during the response to the two storms has been the center of controversy, members of the Oversight Committee repeatedly asked Criswell to answer to potential “systemic bias” against Trump supporters in its response.

The questions come after now-fired FEMA employee Marn’i Washington told relief workers to skip houses that had signs supporting Trump during the agency’s cleanup and recovery effort after Hurricane Milton, an incident Criswell insisted was isolated in multiple responses during the hearing.

Members of the Oversight Committee repeatedly asked Criswell to answer to potential “systemic bias” against Trump supporters in its response. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

FEMA OFFICIAL SAID TO AVOID HOMES WITH TRUMP SIGNS: ‘TO SAY I WAS SURPRISED WOULD BE A LIE’

“There is nothing in any of our policies, our training, or our information sent out to field workers, to avoid any home for whatever reason, especially not because of a political affiliation,” Criswell said in response to questioning from Donalds. “The actions of this one individual are not representative of the work that we do at FEMA.”

But Donalds, whose district was hit hard by Milton, said he had “an issue” with the answer, pointing to a New York Post report that featured an anonymous FEMA employee who claimed that such discrimination on the basis of political affiliation is an “open secret” at FEMA.

Criswell argued that the incident in question was investigated by FEMA and that an investigation into if such issues are more widespread is still ongoing, prompting even more fierce pushback from Donalds.

FEMA has been under fire over the agency’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which earlier this year made landfall in the southeastern U.S. and caused widespread destruction across multiple states. (Julio Cortez/Associated Press)

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“You told me at the beginning of this questioning that there is nothing in your policies that would dictate that this is to occur, yet you have one official who was fired, who said it does occur. You have another official under your purview… talking to the press, that it does occur, but you can’t verify to this committee that these practices do or do not occur,” Donalds said.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.