Despite relentless challenges in the courts and in the media, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is continuing its cost-cutting mission, notching significant achievements along the way.
As the Daily Mail reports, the official DOGE X account revealed that almost $2 billion in funds previously misplaced by Biden-era officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development have been recovered, a scenario Musk blamed on gross mismanagement during the prior administration.
In a post to X outlining the impressive development, DOGE officials explained, “These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed.”
The fact that the funds were misplaced at all during the Biden years was, according to DOGE, a symptom of a “broken process.”
Pointing to greater efficiency that will now be possible, the post added, “@SecretaryTurner and @DOGE worked together to fix the issue and de-obligated the funds which are now available for other use by the Treasury.”
Referenced in the post was the new Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who was confirmed to the role earlier this month.
Turner has already indicated his willingness to collaborate with DOGE to facilitate the transformation of the department he now leads, posting a video message on X last week announcing the creation of the task force together with DOGE.
The work, Turner said, will be “very detailed and deliberate about every dollar spend in serving trial, rural and urban communities across America.”
In keeping with President Donald Trump's commitment to streamlining every corner of the federal government, Turner noted in a press release that the group would be made up of HUD employees aiming to “examine how to best maximize the agency's budget and ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department.”
An early win for the task force, as noted by Turner, was the task force's recovery of another $260 million in savings, though it was not immediately apparent where the money was found or what any related cuts might mean for HUD programming.
Adding to the potential efficiencies to be found within his agencies, reports suggest that significant layoffs of HUD staff may be on the cards, but no specifics on numbers have been released.
In addition to the recovered funds at HUD, DOGE has touted significant wins elsewhere across the federal government, announcing he cancellation of dozens of contracts related to media, DEI, and consulting services at a range of agencies including the Transportation Department and the Department of Homeland Security, as Fox News noted.
Another prime target of DOGE's cost-cutting mission has been the Department of Education, in which more than $100 million in DEI training-related grants have already been canceled.
Given the impressive pace at which DOGE is finding and rooting out wasteful spending and misappropriated funds, it seems certain that Trump, Musk, and the team leading the charge to downsize the federal government are only just getting started.
