Elon Musk may have departed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, months ago, but the Tesla and SpaceX innovator’s radical government reform initiative still has much work to do to achieve its laudable and long overdue cost-cutting mission to create $2 trillion in savings for the American people.
Government bureaucracies, many full of redundancy, some entirely unnecessary, have been dismantled to truly end the era of Big Government for good. However, despite early progress, the defense and national security arenas remain huge sources of potential savings—opportunities still largely unexplored. In particular, the black boxes that are the budgets of the U.S. intelligence agencies have, from an outsider’s perspective, faced only modest personnel reduction targets while billions in contract dollars remain unexamined.
The CIA, FBI, National Security Agency (NSA), and Defense Intelligence Agency, just to name a few, have for years expanded beyond their core missions, adopting social and organizational initiatives that take their eyes off the ball of keeping the United States safer with the best people and information in the world.
To be sure, there have been early successes.
The agency, which focuses on digital and signals intelligence, has demonstrated progress, underscoring an ability to make smart moves, including steps to root out the liberal, deep state agenda.
While culture is critical, the dollars and cents of agency contracts are what will get the Trump administration to DOGE’s $2 trillion goal.
DOGE has proven itself capable of this effort by terminating $900 million in Department of Education contracts, shrinking and folding U.S. Agency for International Development operations back into the State Department, and implementing leadership changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A similar focus on Intelligence Community contracts could yield comparable savings while strengthening our core and impressive national security capabilities.
A few of NSA’s recent contracting decisions invite a fresh look from DOGE.
The NSA ignoring oversight in procurement practices doesn’t stop there, with the WildandStormy case just one example of systemic procurement malfeasance. In February of this year, weeks after DOGE’s launch, the NSA, incredulously, booted the successful LucidLobster contract incumbent, Mission Essential Group, for not charging taxpayers enough, even though they have been doing the same work for more than a decade. The procurement concerns surrounding LucidLobster go deeper than the government actively deciding to spend more money when a lower-cost option is available.
Court filings alleged that NSA personnel shared confidential bidding and other nonpublic information with another bidder over the course of four years, even allowing the aspiring contractor to help craft the scope of work. Despite investigations and findings of misconduct by the NSA Office of Inspector General, the agency marched on. The agency’s challenge to course-correct procurement shortcomings requires just the sort of external intervention that DOGE’s team can provide. The question is, can the leaner, post-Elon team at DOGE continue to make the kind of impact our system needs to get to that $2 trillion savings target? The NSA’s procurement challenges are just one glimpse into a symptom of the broader bureaucratic rot that only external oversight can cure. America deserves nothing less than complete transparency and fiscal responsibility from its intelligence agencies.