The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a project that President Donald Trump’s administration touted as the flagship endeavor in its “war on waste,” has generated $21.7 billion in waste since its launch, Democrats claimed in a new report Thursday.
The staggering figure comes from Democrats on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, spearheaded by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who released their findings in a 55-page report on losses accrued by DOGE, the brainchild of Trump and his billionaire friend-turned-enemy Elon Musk.
The results, the Democrats say, are the unsurprising outcome of a tech CEO with zero government experience taking charge of a massive federal spending overhaul, promising it was “going to be a revolution.”
“By prioritizing disruption over governance and failing to identify solutions for any of the problems it purported to solve, DOGE has created its own forms of waste,” the report stated.
The waste found in the investigation was largely generated by the Trump administration paying hundreds of thousands of employees to stop working. That includes $14.8 billion under the deferred resignation program, which has paid around 200,000 employees not to work throughout the last eight months. Sources told The Washington Post on Thursday that there are currently more than 154,000 federal employees in that program being paid through Sept. 30 or to the end of the year.
The $21.7 billion total also includes $6.1 billion for paying more than 100,000 employees who were involuntarily separated from federal service or put on prolonged periods of administrative leave.
One of the federal employees put on leave six months ago by DOGE says they have no idea when their full pay and other benefits will end — or if they’ll be asked to return to the job they loved.
“Maybe this week, maybe next week, maybe the week after, or maybe next month,” the worker, granted anonymity by HuffPost, said. “We all just kind of guess and make predictions, and we’re usually wrong.”
“DOGE really forced waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating so much of the federal workforce.”
- federal worker put on leave
They’re hopeful to get some news in the next few weeks, but they aren’t holding their breath.
“I’ve said that many, many times over the last six months, and here I am still,” they said. Starting a different job would force them to formally quit their government job, foregoing severance and losing their place at the front of the line for future government work.
Seeing the $21.7 billion figure is especially frustrating, knowing that important research has ceased and grants have stopped going out.
“DOGE really forced waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating so much of the federal workforce,” the worker said.
The waste found in the report also includes $110 million on food aid and medical supplies that are spoiling in warehouses, awaiting destruction. That will be destroyed “at a further cost to taxpayers,” the report found. In one example provided, the U.S. is spending approximately $160,000 to incinerate $9.7 million in contraceptives because it allegedly refused to sell them to a third party at anything below full market value.
Another $66 million in the total comes from slapping high-level employees with entry-level tasks, including more than $138,000 “for paying scientists to check guests in at national parks,” per the findings. DOGE mandates for people to move closer to physical government offices cost another $41 million in relocation fees.
The $21.7 billion does not include the government’s legal expenses from DOGE-related lawsuits, the report noted, nor does it include some indirect costs, like the economic consequences of weakened disaster response agencies or stifled innovation from canceled grants.
“The full extent of the waste and harm caused by DOGE’s disruptive activities is difficult to quantify because costs remain hidden and many of the consequences have yet to fully materialize,” the report stated.
The White House did not immediately respond when reached for comment about the report. DOGE claims it has saved Americans $199 billion so far, amounting to $1,236.02 per taxpayer.
The report called on the Offices of Inspectors General to launch an investigation into DOGE, which has continued despite Musk’s fallout with Trump and departure from the department. Per the DOGE website, it terminated numerous employees from the departments of the Interior, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, among others, just last week.
“Fully understanding and quantifying the true costs of DOGE’s operations,” the report concluded, “is crucial to holding the administration accountable and preventing similar detrimental ‘efficiency’ schemes in the future.”