Musk-led DOGE walks back mistakes amid push to streamline government – Washington Examiner
The article discusses recent developments regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, as it attempts to rectify several past mistakes while streamlining the federal government. Reports indicated that DOGE had to amend or delete over 1,000 contracts previously claimed to have been canceled by the Trump administration, which considerably reduced its reported budgetary impact from $16 billion to approximately $8 billion. The agencyS website revealed various inaccuracies, including exaggerated savings linked to federal departments and programs.
Despite claiming to have saved the federal government around $65 billion, an analysis showed that nearly 40% of the contracts listed woudl not lead to actual savings, raising concerns about the validity of DOGE’s accounting. Critics, including former government contracting specialists, questioned the efficacy of the reductions, arguing that many canceled contracts served vital functions.
Additionally, some canceled contracts were reinstated after being deemed critical, demonstrating the complexities and challenges faced by DOGE.Musk acknowledged that some cancellations inadvertently impacted ongoing humanitarian efforts, such as those addressing an Ebola outbreak, but stated that the services were quickly restored. The White House and DOGE have not commented on these developments.
Musk-led DOGE walks back high-profile mistakes amid push to streamline government
The Department of Government Efficiency has worked to quietly backtrack some mistakes the agency has made as it works to slim down the federal government, including several errors on its “wall of receipts” website after reporting found the database to be riddled with inaccuracies.
The New York Times reported Monday that DOGE, the brainchild of tech billionaire Elon Musk, erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts allegedly canceled by the Trump administration over the weekend. In total, those changes nearly halved DOGE’s claimed budgetary impact, bringing down reported savings from $16 billion when the website first went live on Feb. 19, down to around $8 billion on Monday.
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This comes after DOGE last week outright deleted five of seven of the largest line-item savings the department has touted this month.
The entries DOGE has amended include a $1.9 billion cut at the Department of Treasury that was later revealed to have occurred during the previous administration, $8 billion in savings at the Department of Homeland Security that was later revised down to $8 million, $655 billion in cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development that turned out to be a single figure erroneously logged three times, and a $232 million cut to the Social Security Administration that was later revised down to roughly half-a-million.
Still, language was added to the DOGE website stating that any errors in their figures “originate directly from agency contracting officials” and are the fault of individual federal departments or agencies, not DOGE itself.
Musk, a special government employee and advisor to the president, has faced criticism regarding the accuracy of DOGE’s public accounting. Musk claims that DOGE has saved the federal government $65 billion by canceling leases and grants, firing employees, and selling off government assets.
However, an analysis carried out by the Associated Press found that 40% of the federal contracts posted to DOGE’s wall of receipts won’t actually save the federal government any money. Trump administration officials previously said that those contracts amount to past interns, workforce trainings, and past software purchases, and more but still should be removed from the federal government’s books.
“It’s like confiscating used ammunition after it’s been shot when there’s nothing left in it. It doesn’t accomplish any policy objective,” Charles Tiefer, a former University of Baltimore law professor and expert on government contracting law, countered to the Associated Press. “[They’re] terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesn’t accomplish anything for saving money.”
The Trump administration has also reinstated some contracts previously canceled by DOGE.
That includes MANA Nutrition, a Georgia company that manufactures a peanut butter paste used to treat malnutrition in children. MANA CEO Mark Moore told CNN that its USAID contracts were originally canceled last week before being reinstated over the weekend.
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Musk admitted during President Donald Trump’s Wednesday Cabinet meeting that additional cuts at USAID “accidentally” canceled the government’s programs fighting an ongoing Ebola outbreak but claimed to have “quickly” restored the services.
Neither the White House nor DOGE returned requests for comment on Monday.
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