What is DOGE Doing?

Contracts

The federal government has a multitude of agencies, bureaus, departments, commissions, corporations, offices, services, institutes, offices, and boards. All of these enter into different sorts of contracts, including subscriptions for news services, accounting services, data, etc. Federal contracts also pay for training, marketing support, cyber security, research, expert witnesses, software, outside legal consultants, and translation services. If there is a service, some arm of the federal government probably has a contract for it.

DOGE is reviewing federal contracts and canceling those it considers unnecessary or wasteful. As of mid-March 2025, DOGE has canceled 4,083 contracts associated with 52 government entities ranging from the Railroad Retirement Board to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). DOGE records nearly every cancellation with a link to the contract details housed in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), allowing citizens to see what the contracts were for and who in the agency was last responsible for securing and/or overseeing the contract. As of mid-March 2025, the total number of contact dollars canceled is over $32 billion.

The figure below shows the top-5 federal agencies and departments for canceled contracts based on total monetary value.

What Is Getting Cut?

In keeping with the Trump Administration’s goal of removing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, 102 DEI training, support services, or assessment contracts have been terminated with a total savings of about $600 million. In addition, $1.7 billion was saved through 161 contract cancellations for expert witnesses, consultants, and outside experts. The data subscription services from Politico had 76 contracts ($14 million) canceled, and the financial news provider Bloomberg had 18 contracts ($5 million) canceled.

USAID saw the greatest cut in the number of contracts, with the highest dollar value in cuts. These contracts included a $3,949 contract for printing services in Pakistan, a $30,506 contract for packing security equipment to be shipped back to the U.S., a $169,995 Infoblox software license renewal, a $379,647 Zoom contract for a 12-month license of 50 users with up to 20,000 participants, and a $49 million task order contract supporting the restoration of essential services, strengthen good governance, and enabling economic recovery in Syria. The largest USAID cancellation was a $920 million contract to rebuild power generation facilities in Ukraine.

The largest single canceled contract across the entire government was a 7-year agreement from the Department of the Treasury ($1.9 billion). This contract is a purchase agreement distributed across Centennial Technology, Deloitte Consulting, Etelligent Group, Integrated Systems, and Noblis for new computing equipment, software, and support.

The smallest contract eliminated by DOGE was a $1,400 contract from the Department of Agriculture for facilitation services for the senior leadership of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Altogether, these small (< $10,000) contracts account for 1% of all contracts canceled.

Has This Happened Before?

Other administrations have tried to streamline government in limited ways, but none have operated as DOGE does. The United States Digital Service (USDS), created by President Obama and transformed into DOGE by President Trump, had a similar mission but a different approach. The USDS described itself as a government “start-up” that recruited experts from the tech world to improve government information systems. The USDS did have access to some government systems to realize technical gains but did not have any mandate to reduce spending or cut programs. Its mission was to make government more modernized and responsive to new digital communications and data-keeping needs.

Under President Clinton, Vice President Gore spearheaded the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (REGO). REGO’s mission was to bring government into the Internet era, make systems easier for users, and add performance metrics for government agencies. This program ran for 5 years, resulting in cuts to government programs, elimination of civil service jobs, and consolidation of some agencies. Unlike DOGE, the REGO effort first took 6 months to identify different parts of government that might be ripe for efficiency gains. Moreover, instead of prioritizing spending reductions, the aim was efficiency, transparency, and improving links between federal, state, and local governments.

REGO’s accomplishments included building a portal to file taxes online, improving hospital treatment times in the VA, and creating the FirstGov.gov website, a compendium of links to federal information that evolved into what is now USA.gov.

The Takeaway

DOGE was created to streamline and increase the efficiency of federal operations. Thus far, it has cut federal spending by about 32 billion dollars. The total amount saved by DOGE’s contract actions thus far is a small fraction (1.6%) of the federal budget deficit, which is approximately $2 trillion.

More substantial cost reductions may be generated if and when DOGE turns to reviewing entitlement programs.

There is no documented evidence of fraud for any terminated contracts. However, the notion of waste is subjective, and the contracts canceled are presumably considered wasteful by those making the decisions.

The long-term impacts of DOGE's approach—both in terms of cost savings and impacts on government policies—are not yet clear.