- Elon Musk’s task force, DOGE, has doubled its budget to over $14.4 million.
- Trump established DOGE to enhance efficiency and cut federal spending and waste.
- DOGE has claimed to be saving the government around $1 billion a day.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, aimed at reducing federal expenditures, has more than doubled its own spending in its first three weeks.
DOGE’s apportionment grew from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8, according to the task force’s latest financial filings.
Both Musk and Trump have said the task force’s main goal is rooting out government fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
The office’s $14.4 million apportionment is less than its previous incarnation as the United States Digital Services, which Trump’s executive order renamed to United States DOGE Services. In its prior form, the office had been allocated approximately $60 million for fiscal year 2024, according to a Biden White House announcement.
Since getting started less than a month ago, DOGE has quickly attempted to dismantle government agencies like USAID, reduce the overall federal workforce, and gain access to the Treasury department’s digital payments system that controls trillions of dollars in payments for everything from Social Security to tax refunds.
On its X page, DOGE claimed it is saving the government about $1 billion per day, “mostly from stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations.”
DOGE has been chronicling many of its spending cuts on its X page, including terminating leases of underutilized buildings, ending consulting contracts related to “strategic communication” and “executive coaching,” and canceling government subscriptions to news outlets like Politico.
The task force also announced on January 31 that it had terminated 104 government contracts related to DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) programs and initiatives.
DOGE said the cuts — spanning 30 agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Personnel Management, Environmental Protection Agency, and many more — amounted to over $1 billion in savings.
The DOGE White House office staff is around 30 workers, most of whom are early- to mid-career professionals with backgrounds in tech, finance, law, and politics.
Musk also does not receive a paycheck as a “special government employee” in charge of DOGE.
