The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, recently discovered that approximately $2 billion was misplaced under former President Joe Biden. Musk has led DOGE on a mission to cut wasteful spending and reduce fraud in the federal government so that it can better serve U.S. taxpayers.
The official DOGE X account shared the news on Friday, explaining that the Biden-Harris administration had “misplaced” just short of $2 billion. However, the organization noted that the funds were recovered amid collaboration with the United States Treasury to fix the issue.
DOGE said, “$1.9 billion of HUD money was just recovered after being misplaced during the Biden administration due to a broken process. These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed. @SecretaryTurner and @DOGE worked together to fix the issue and de-obligated the funds which are now available for other use by the Treasury.”
Scott Turner, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also announced that he was working with DOGE to audit government expenditures. He said, “I’m happy to announce the DOGE task force here at HUD. We will be very detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent in serving tribal, rural, and urban communities across America.”
“With President Trump’s leadership, business as usual, the status quo, is no longer the posture that we will take, and with the help of DOGE, we will identify and eliminate all waste, fraud and abuse,” he maintained. “We’ve already identified $260 million in savings and still have much more to accomplish.”
DOGE also delivered a Valentine’s Day post about its efforts to cut wasteful spending. “Roses are red, violets are blue, Today, DOGE and 10 agencies made 586 wasteful contracts bid adieu! With a ceiling value of $2.1B and $445M in savings secured, A perfect Valentine’s gift for all taxpayers—well-earned and deserved!” the post began. It continued, “Today’s batch includes a $8.2M USDA contract for ‘environmental compliance services for the implementation of pilot projects developed under the partnership for climate smart commodities.’”
The American Tribune also reported on a major courtroom victory for DOGE last week when a federal judge gave the green light for a downsizing program known as “Fork in the Road,” in which bureaucrats were offered a payout to resign. The program had been paused after a lawsuit was brought against it.
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Trump Administration Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently commented on the program, stating, “75,000 people accepted the buyout program. That’s going to save millions of dollars for the American taxpayers and that’s exactly what we wanted. We put a deadline on it, and the deadline was reached. 75,000 people accepted the offer.”
US District Judge George O’Toole Jr. wrote, “The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient.” He added, “Just as the Court found that the plaintiffs in Hippocratic Medicine could not spend their way into standing, neither can the plaintiffs in this case establish standing by choosing to divert resources towards “respond[ing] to tremendous uncertainty created by OPM’s actions” and away from other union priorities. (Pls.’ Mem. in Supp. of TRO 17.) Moreover, a loss of membership dues to the unions is not certain before the September 30th deadline.”
Watch Leavitt below: