This demands investigation! Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the top Democrat on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released a Minority staff report today exposing massive waste tied to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to the findings, DOGE has squandered at least $21.7 billion in taxpayer funds between January 20 and July 18, 2025.
DOGE’s costly missteps include:
– $14.8 billion for the so-called “Deferred Resignation Program,” which paid roughly 200,000 federal employees to stay home for up to eight months.
– $6.1 billion spent on more than 100,000 employees who were removed from their roles or placed on extended administrative leave, many still collecting pay while doing no work.
– $263 million in lost interest and fees at the Department of Energy after loan freezes stalled projects critical to affordable energy and grid stability.
– $155 million in lost productivity from forcing nearly a million employees to send weekly “accomplishment” emails to the Office of Personnel Management, consuming millions of work hours.
– $110 million in spoiled food and medical aid sitting in warehouses, with destruction costs to be billed to taxpayers.
– $66 million wasted by assigning highly trained professionals to menial tasks, such as paying over $138,000 for scientists to act as guest greeters in national parks.
– $41.8 million to move more than 250 employees at one agency physically closer to an office.
– $38 million written off from failed science and technology projects at the NIH and IRS.
– $1.7 million burned on unnecessary expense-justification processes at multiple agencies, including defending the need for FAA window cleaning.
Source