DOGE lists $1.7 billion in savings found over past two weeks
Even as its leader Elon Musk prepares to step back, the Department of Government Efficiency is barreling ahead on slashing federal contracts and grants, recently finding savings of over $1.7 billion in what it deems wasteful spending.
Over the past several days, DOGE ended 269 federal contracts valuing $845 million and resulting in $255 million in savings, according to a post on its X page Thursday. It also terminated $90 million in grants, including a nearly one million dollar handout for a “BIPOC culinary program” and a $625,000 grant for a “Russian-Far East biodiversity partnership”.
The cuts follow DOGE’s announcement last week that it had axed 57 contracts – including $120,000 going to an “Indonesia environmental policy and law enforcement specialist” – resulting in total savings of $1.5 billion.
Dozens of states and advocacy groups have sued Musk, DOGE, and the Trump administration for the cascade of cuts made to federal agencies, personnel, and funds. The constitutionality of Musk’s actions in particular, given his role as a non-confirmed “special government employee” of the executive branch, has left courts and legal experts divided.
As of April 20, DOGE says it has found an estimated $160 billion in savings, which it describes as a combination of “asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”
Due to the DOGE backlash taking a financial toll on Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, the billionaire has announced his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” as The Center Square reported.
