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JEFFERSON CITY — Eleven weeks into the so-called MODOGE, a Missouri Senate committee dedicated to rooting out government fraud and abuse, little of its mission has been addressed.

It all started well enough as Senate Chairman Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, spoke of the committee’s potential early in session.

“By eliminating inefficiencies and maximizing the use of taxpayer dollars, we can create a state government that truly works for the people,” she said.

But when the committee sought feedback from the public, things didn’t go as expected. A portal set up to take tips from the public was initially about potential abortion restrictions being floated in the Legislature, as well as grievances directed at local governments. In recent weeks, the flood turned into a trickle, as public interest in the committee’s work appeared to wane.

Absent groundbreaking efficiency proposals, the committee has taken aim at something that doesn’t seem directly related to its stated mission.

At a lightly attended hearing Monday, Jason Sumners, director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, spoke about disease prevention in white-tailed deer.

He was called in because the department’s practice of killing deer in areas where chronic wasting disease is detected was a common complaint sent to the committee’s portal.

“The Missouri Department of Conservation, after deer season each year, slaughters hundreds of additional deer, with thermals, over corn piles,” one commenter wrote.

Chronic wasting disease is fatal and highly transmissible. The department removes deer in areas where the disease is prevalent with the consent of property owners. The deer meat is then tested, and if it’s healthy, it’s donated to food banks or kept by the landowner.

Additionally, on the first weekend of the season, hunters in counties where the disease is common were required to have their harvested deer tested.

Coleman, citing complaints from the public, asked whether it was fiscally prudent for the state to spend money aggressively targeting a disease that .

Sumners responded, arguing if the department does nothing, “We’re going to end up with more sick deer on the landscape in the short term and likely a much-reduced population (in the long run).”

The department only allows for only a certain number of deer to be killed yearly to maintain the overall population. If the disease spreads, the population will likely begin to decline, which could jeopardize the state’s hunting season, Sumners added.

Counties in Missouri where the whitetail deer population is being killed post-season are seeing a flattening in chronic wasting disease cases, Sumners said. Cases have risen in counties where the department hasn’t been as aggressive.

The department removed 372 deer from Ste. Genevieve County last year. That’s a big increase from recent years, as the county wasn’t being heavily investigated until recently.

Meanwhile, Adair County, which the department has targeted for a decade, is seeing flat case rates.

Coleman also questioned whether the department was motivated by federal grants to curb the disease.

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth, and I say that because we’ve received no additional federal funding to do specific chronic wasting disease management,” Sumners said.

Contrary to Senate committee submissions, Sumners said the department found that 78% of deer hunters are in favor of the state working to curb chronic wasting disease. The Post-Dispatch wasn’t able to review those surveys.