When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was first formed, then leader Elon Musk made it clear that the long term goal of DOGE was to become part of every agency and every department of the federal government to change the mindset about tracking and spending the taxpayer’s money.
Though the initial, quick actions of DOGE shocked and even angered many, the goal was to shake up the entrenched administrative state that works to protect itself and those that benefit from the public trough first with the hard-working taxpayer an afterthought. Proper tracking and spending of the American taxpayer’s funds is the over all goal. President Trump made it clear that spending will be done consistent with what is inline with American interests.
The Economic Policy Institute says that at least 26 states have launched versions of DOGE “related to government efficiency through legislation, executive action, or the creation of new legislative committees.” Not surprisingly, the states embracing DOGE efforts on behalf of their state taxpayers are Republican-led states.
DOGE has clocked quite a bit of savings and reforms over recent days including:
Unused website update
In a shocking discovery, the Department of Energy website was still advertising a science workshop that took place in 2004, over 20 years ago.
DOGE continues to partner with agencies to delete unused/obsolete websites. In the last few weeks, 69 sites have been deleted, including:
-NASA: deleted 26 sites for total savings of $500k/yr
-National Science Foundation: deleted 8 sites for total savings of $868k/yr
-Department of Interior: deleted 5 sites for total savings of $4.1M/year
Contracts update
Over the last week, agencies terminated 230 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $2.8B and savings of $407M, including a $144k USDA contract for a “Mexico sustainable landscapes consultant”, and a $420k Treasury contract for “mentoring, evaluation, learning specialist services in Haiti”.
Weather Radio Update
Since the last update, National Weather Service has upgraded 44 more sites to wireless, saving an additional ~$160k/month in copper contracts. There are still 300 sites to go.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
OPM cut its annual spend on federal contracts by 50%—from $484M to $242M—while improving both the quality and scope of its services.
On January 20, 2025, OPM had 444 active contracts, and has since taken action on 191 contracts via terminations and non-renewals.
Key savings highlights include:
- $12M saved by internalizing retirement-related projects, culminating in the fully digital retire.opm.gov
-$5.9M saved via restructuring the IT helpdesk and implementing efficiency measures. As a result, the average ticket backlog dropped by 30%.
- $39M saved by restructuring two underutilized IT contracts
Other savings are:
Agencies overall terminated 54 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.8B and savings of $804M, including a $842k USAID professional services contract for a “director of the Armenia innovation hub within the USAID/Armenia Economic Growth Office” and a $33k USAGM contract for “24/7 FM broadcast services to the Togolese Republic”