- Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has doubled its budget from $6.75 million to about $14.4 million just weeks after its inception. The advisory group claimed to have already saved taxpayers $37.7 billion, but has not disclosed details on how it calculated that number.
As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its quest to eliminate what it considers bureaucratic excess in an effort to curb federal spending, its own financial footprint is expanding.
The advisory group has doubled its spending from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8 from $6.75 million to more than $14.4 million, according to a financial filing updated Saturday. On Jan. 27, it was initially allocated $750,000. The most recent addition of $7.7 million will be used for “for anticipated reimbursements from agencies in support of Software Modernization Initiative,” the document says.
DOGE’s budget is still a fraction of that of its predecessor, the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which was allocated $60 million per year as of 2024 to improve the technological efficiency of the government through what is now, essentially, DOGE’s “Software Modernization Initiative.”
In addition to continuing USDS’s mission, DOGE was tasked with examining “regulations, expenditures, and restructuring agencies” according to the executive order, though allowances for those tasks are not apparent in the budget filing.
Less than three weeks into its existence, it’s clear DOGE is clearly investing its resources in more than just updating and streamlining the federal government’s information technology systems. In its first two weeks, DOGE facilitated a buyout option for nearly 2 million federal workers and gained access to the U.S. Treasuries payment systems, which include Social Security numbers. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving DOGE the power to carry out large-scale layoffs, or “reductions in force,” of the federal workforce.
U.S. judges have temporarily blocked some of DOGE’s actions, including its access to U.S. Treasury payment systems, and barred Trump from putting 2,700 U.S. Agency for International Development workers on leave. Musk has pushed back against arguments from numerous legal experts that DOGE’s barrage of firings are illegal, as well concerns he is overreaching in his limited role in Trump’s administration.
"The people voted for major government reform, and that's what people are going to get," Musk told reporters Tuesday. "They're going to get what they voted for."
Saving $1 trillion
Musk said Tuesday DOGE has identified more than $1 trillion worth of “abuse” and “fraud” in the federal government to eliminate over the next 18 months, though he did not provide evidence or specifics on the sources of the waste. DOGE claimed last month in an X post it saves $1 billion in government spending per day by “stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations, all consistent with the President’s Executive Orders.” Its goal is to ramp up spending to $3 billion daily.
An online DOGE “live tracker,” using data from DOGE’s X account, claims the advisory has saved taxpayers nearly $37.7 billion, though it does not offer additional information on how the figure was calculated.
Despite DOGE’s exponential budget increase, Musk’s own workforce is apparently poised to do its own part in mitigating government spending. Deemed a “special government employee,” Musk will not be on the government’s payroll, White House officials have previously said. His unpaid status will preclude him from having to publicly file financial disclosures and conflicts of interest, according to the Department of Justice.
Nearly all of DOGE’s workforce—made up of about 30 early- and mid-career workers, some as young as 19—are categorized as volunteers, Business Insider reported. The White House confirmed with Fortune that DOGE employees are not getting paid.
Late last year, DOGE was looking for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” according to its social media.
