DOGE Reports $400 Million Saved from Cancellation of 239 ‘Wasteful’ Government Contracts

March 14, 2025 TruthUSA

The advisory committee led by Elon Musk has provided an update on the federal government’s efforts to cut costs.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under Elon Musk’s leadership, announced that in just two days this week, federal agencies terminated 239 contracts perceived as “wasteful spending,” resulting in savings exceeding $400 million.

“In the past two days, agencies have canceled 239 unproductive contracts with a combined ceiling value of approximately [$1.7 billion] and achieved savings” of around $400 million, DOGE stated in a post on March 13 on the social media platform X.

It was noted that one of the contracts involved consulting services aimed at “improving management and program operations to foster innovation and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of business services; reevaluating, realigning, and retraining the workforce; along with improving program delivery through various transformational initiatives.”

Later that same day, DOGE reported on X that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had canceled several grants and initiatives, including a $100,000 study at Vanderbilt University investigating “social networks” among “sexual and gender minorities,” a $37,000 project at the University of Houston examining “fear of deportation” among “Latinx young adults,” a $681,000 investment for the University of Pennsylvania to explore “anti-vaping messages” on social media targeting “sexual and gender minority teens,” and a $225,000 study at the University of Colorado on the “effects of hormones on headaches in transmasculine adolescents.”

According to DOGE, the NIH also canceled several additional grants and programs earlier in the week that focused on similar research areas, including “a $620,000 LGB+ inclusive teen pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys,” a $699,000 study analyzing marijuana usage among “sexual minority gender diverse individuals,” a $740,000 project to investigate social networks among “black and Latino sexual minority men in New Jersey,” a $75,000 examination of “structural racism,” and a $50,000 initiative looking at “LGTBQ+ Latinx youth in an agricultural community” and their “sexual health.”

Following the establishment of DOGE by President Donald Trump through an executive order in January, the organization has been actively auditing various agencies to identify what it considers wasteful expenditure, fraud, or abuse. The group has faced several lawsuits from different stakeholders, raising questions about Musk’s role in DOGE and the authority of his team to implement changes across the federal government.

Louis DeJoy, chief of the U.S. Postal Service, informed Congress this week of an agreement he has entered into with DOGE to provide support for the struggling agency as it seeks to resolve pressing issues.

Although the Postal Service operates as an independent agency with 635,000 employees and incurred a loss of $9.5 billion last year, it was exempted from the cost-cutting audits initiated by Trump and overseen by DOGE.

DeJoy mentioned that the accord with DOGE and the General Services Administration would enable the reform team to “help us identify and realize further efficiencies …. the DOGE team was kind enough to inquire about the significant challenges they could assist us with.”

In one instance, his letter indicated that the Postal Regulatory Commission “is an unnecessary agency that has caused over $50 billion in damage to the Postal Service due to the implementation of faulty pricing models and outdated bureaucratic procedures.”

Additionally, this week, DOGE reported on X, a platform owned by Musk, that approximately 200,000 government credit cards were deactivated following an audit that revealed they were underutilized, and it uncovered around $312 million in COVID-era loans allegedly issued to children aged 11 and younger.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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