DOGE torched nearly $10 billion trying to root out waste, fraud and abuse: watchdog

The Trump administration spent $9.5 billion last year on paid administrative leave for federal employees as part of its effort to shrink the government, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

That figure marks a sixfold jump in paid-leave salary costs compared with 2023, and agencies' use of such leave rose 435 percent over the same period, and much of the spike traces back to the deferred resignation program pushed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, reported CNN.

DOGE – which was purportedly set up to root out waste, fraud and abuse – allowed workers to resign while staying on paid leave for months without working, and GAO estimates the program alone cost $6.7 billion and placed more than 144,000 employees on leave, while some agencies offered multiple rounds as it grew more popular once employees grasped how sweeping the workforce overhaul would be.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management doesn't actually know the true cost of the leave used to downsize the workforce, and even GAO's own figures may be overstated due to unreliable agency data — raising doubts about whether the administration can verify its promised long-term savings.

OPM Director Scott Kupor insisted the report ignored the bigger picture, arguing the $9.5 billion was "a one-time expense" to shrink the government by 270,000 employees against what he described as $40 billion in annual taxpayer savings. "That 400 percent return on investment is a massive benefit to the taxpayer," Kupor said in a statement to CNN.

The program launched days after Trump took office via an email titled "Fork in the Road," and unions warned employees against signing up, questioning whether the government would pay them through September; a lawsuit to block it failed.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)'s report last summer estimated the broader DOGE effort had squandered billions, prompting OPM to defend the program, with Kupor saying it would save "$20+ billion in costs, annually."

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, accused the administration of abandoning its own stated mission.

"After promising to cut waste, Trump instead set billions upon billions in taxpayer dollars on fire to quite literally pay people not to do jobs they loved," she said, calling it "the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse."

CNN said it had reached out to the White House for comment.