Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency says it’s saving taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. In reality, none of the money has gone back to taxpayers yet — nor has it been cut from the federal budget.
The cost-cutting blitz has already halted the spending of more than $55 billion, according to DOGE, although that number is difficult to verify as DOGE only lists around 20% of its line-item spending reductions on its website. That includes canceling programs ranging from billion-dollar IT-support contracts to $32,200 set aside for two students interning at the Treasury Department.
“More of your tax dollars saved,” Musk posted on X after DOGE claimed credit on Thursday for saving $115 million in canceled contracts.
A Trump administration official told NOTUS that “Depending on the funds” the money is “either repurposed or returned to the Treasury Department.”
But it’s unlikely the White House will be able to unilaterally direct congressionally appropriated funds away from agencies, multiple federal budget experts told NOTUS, meaning those tax dollars aren’t likely to make their way directly back into taxpayers’ pockets or be used to pay down the national debt.
Under the process for appropriating federal dollars, the funds are likely still sitting in government agencies’ coffers.
“OK, we’re not going to spend it on this one project. Well, it’s still in this pool of money that the agency could spend for other projects that were similarly appropriated,” said Zach Moller, the director of the think tank Third Way’s economic program. “If that’s the situation, then there’s probably not going to be any savings.”
Congress’ power of the purse allows it to dictate appropriations to federal agencies — including moving those appropriations around or rescinding them.
Federal officials who decide to spend less than the congressionally appropriated amount — or want to cut spending altogether — must provide notice to Congress. Congress, in turn, has 45 days to pass a law allowing the rescission of funds. If Congress doesn’t pass a law, the funds must be spent as appropriated. Spending on contracts that agencies are obligated to must also be completed.
The White House declined to say whether it sent a request to Congress to rescind money from federal agencies.
“That’s sort of the general procedure that should be followed. It’s not being followed,” said Steve Redburn, a former senior government official in the Office of Management and Budget and now-lecturer at George Washington University.
“Congress hasn’t, as far as I know, hasn’t received any requests from the administration to actually rescind the money, so it’s possible the money is simply being delayed by the disruption and will eventually be used as intended by Congress,” he continued.
Neither DOGE nor the office of Speaker Mike Johnson responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the House Budget Committee deferred to the White House.
But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a Tuesday post on X that he wants Congress’ budget resolution to include “passing into law @DOGE’s identified waste in government.”
And Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview on Fox News last week that DOGE’s work was “long overdue.”
“It’s going to take somebody, probably from the outside, somebody like Elon Musk, to be able to do it and do it right,” Thune said. “Obviously they’re going to identify some things that, you know, perhaps can’t be changed or fixed, but there’s a ton of stuff out there, I think, can be done better.”
Asked if Musk or others from DOGE have contacted Thune about rescinding funding, a spokesperson for Thune directed NOTUS to the Fox News interview.
Without involving Congress in the process, it’s doubtful that DOGE can actually significantly cut government spending in a way that boosts savings for Americans.
“Even to move stuff around in the various accounts in a particular department or agency will often require a reprogramming,” one House Democratic lawmaker told NOTUS. “That sometimes involves congressional assent.”
The view from inside the Office of Personnel Management is that the DOGE team is focused on cutting what they can with little regard for where the appropriated money ends up.
“It doesn’t seem like they’ve gotten that far,” one OPM employee told NOTUS. “They don’t appear to be considering the consequences of what they’re doing as a whole.”
It’s unclear how long DOGE could continue to circumvent the process for reducing or stopping spending agencies.
Multiple outside groups have accused Trump and his administration of executive overreach in lawsuits, citing the failure to reach out to Congress. Democratic lawmakers have signaled that Trump and Musk’s actions are likely to lead to more litigation that centers around laws on impoundment.
Because of the legal requirements for rescinding funds, many of DOGE’s claims about saving taxpayer money are simply hypotheticals, according to Bobby Kogan, the senior director for federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress.
“If they illegally cause us to not spend, then that means we have a smaller deficit. But it’s not like your taxes were any lower, right? You paid the same taxes,” Kogan told NOTUS. “The next step that I think is really important is that, because this is illegal, they’re not going to succeed at … lowering the deficit eventually.”
There are still plenty of question marks around what happens next when it comes to axed appropriations.
“We’re still trying to figure out what authority Elon Musk has in this process,” Moller said. “It’s unprecedented, it’s bizarre and it’s scary.”
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Shifra Dayak and Mark Alfred are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.