US Cancels 54 Contracts, Saves $804 Million in 2 Days: DOGE

Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to codify DOGE’s practices to permanently curb improper payments.

The Department of Government Efficiency website is displayed on a phone, in this photo illustration. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times

Federal government agencies terminated 54 contracts over two days that netted $804 million in savings, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in a July 5 post on social media platform X.

The canceled “wasteful contracts” had a ceiling value of $1.8 billion, it said. These include an “$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.’”

DOGE’s announcement follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s confirmation of the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on July 1, arguing that the foreign assistance provided by the agency failed to deliver results for Americans.

USAID was part of a “globe-spanning NGO industrial complex” funded by U.S. taxpayers, he said, using the abbreviation of “nongovernmental organization.”

In a July 6 post on X, DOGE commended the Office of Personnel Management for having cut its annual spending on federal contracts by 50 percent while “improving both the quality and scope of its services.”

For instance, the agency saved $5.9 million through restructuring the IT helpdesk while also instituting efficiency measures.

“As a result, the average ticket backlog dropped by 30 percent,” DOGE said.

According to a June 29 update by DOGE, the initiative has so far saved $190 billion in taxpayer funds through measures such as contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, cancellation of grants, and asset sales.

This translates into roughly $1,180 saved per American taxpayer.

Some of the “strangest, most baffling uses” of government funding uncovered by DOGE include a $2.8 million grant to address “historic and systemic racial inequities” in STEM education and a $6.9 million grant for teaching social and emotional learning from an “antiracist approach.”

Agencies that have generated the most savings under DOGE include the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Department of Education, and the Office of Personnel Management.

DOGE has been operating for more than a month without Elon Musk at its head. Musk left the initiative in May after his tenure as a special government employee expired.

Subsequently, Musk and President Donald Trump engaged in an escalating public feud over the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump signed into law on July 4.

Musk has criticized spending in the new law, saying it will increase the United States’ debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

Privacy Issue, Codifying DOGE Practices

DOGE has come under fire from Democrats over the issue of citizen privacy. In a June 8 letter to the acting inspector general of the Department of Education, Democrat lawmakers accused the agency of refusing to provide them with “key information” regarding DOGE’s “infiltration” of the department.

This includes DOGE employees’ access to sensitive data, the letter said.

“Because of the Department’s refusal to provide full and complete information, the full extent of DOGE’s role and influence at [the Department of Education] remains unknown,” the lawmakers wrote.

“This lack of clarity is not only frustrating for borrowers but also dangerous for the future of an agency that handles an extensive student loan portfolio and a range of federal aid programs for higher education.”

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers introduced the “DOGE in Spending Act” last month, which aims to codify DOGE practices to identify and prevent improper and fraudulent payments, according to a June 5 statement from the office of Sen. Kevin Kramer (R-N.D.), one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill.

The act seeks to modernize the Treasury’s payment oversight system. It would require each federal disbursement to specify the purpose of the expenditure and the source of funding.

“From the moment he took office, President Trump laid out a clear agenda: eliminate waste, reduce unnecessary spending, and restore fiscal sanity to Washington,” Cramer said.

“The Department of Government Efficiency has delivered—cutting through layers of bureaucracy.

“This agency has taken a scalpel to the federal government, slashing misspending, and eliminating fraudulent and improper payments. By codifying DOGE’s best practices, we safeguard the taxpayer dollars of North Dakotans and Americans across the country.”

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.