The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being championed by tech billionaire, Elon Musk announced on its official X account that $1.9 billion of misplaced funds have been recovered from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), adding that former President Joe Biden’s administration was to blame.
‘These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed,’ DOGE wrote in a post on X on Saturday, adding that the funds were lost in the first place due to a ‘broken process.’
‘@SecretaryTurner and @DOGE worked together to fix the issue and de-obligated the funds which are now available for other use by the Treasury.’
Newly confirmed Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Scott Turner announced that he would be working with DOGE to set up a task force within the agency.
He posted a video on his X account on Thursday announcing the task force, declaring that the collaboration would be ‘very detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent in serving tribal, rural and urban communities across America.’
The task force is comprised of HUD employees and is intended 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,’ according to a press release.
In Turner’s video message on Thursday, he said that the task force recovered an additional $260 million in savings.
The agency hasn’t disclosed specific information on what this money was initially funding, or how the spending cuts will impact HUD.
The Trump Administration has continued to cheer on Musk and the DOGE’s efforts to slash government spending, however, some critics have argued that the cuts will impact federal employees.
Anonymous agency workers told NPR that the administration aimed to lay off half of HUD’s staff.
Antonio Gaines, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, also told the publication that HUD employees could be significantly impacted by the cuts.
Gaines, whose union represents HUD employees, said that federal workers who manage programs on homelessness, affordable housing, and enforcing civil rights laws could be on the chopping block.
Another HUD staffer with the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program said that the project appears to be targeted for cancellation.
DOGE has been slashing federal funding throughout governmental agencies, including the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Pentagon.
The cuts are a result of Trump’s executive order that permits Musk and his department to work with other federal agencies in decreasing spending.
DOGE cut $982 million in spending by the DOE, a majority of which were with contracts by the department’s Institute of Education Sciences. Grants for programs promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion were also slashed.
On Thursday, DOGE lieutenant Gavin Kliger arrived at the office of the IRS with other employees to evaluate their spending.
Trump later said that the IRS would be ‘looked at’ by DOGE employees, but didn’t expect to close the department.
He then referred to Musk and the workers at DOGE as ‘super geniuses’ and praised the department for doing an ‘amazing job.’
On Friday, DOGE agents moved their efforts to the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters in Germany at the Munich Security Conference that he welcomed the efforts.
‘There’s plenty of places where we want the keen eye of DOGE, but we’ll do it in coordination,’ Hegseth said.
Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth said that he welcomed DOGE and was ready to work with Elon Musk
The secretary added that he would support cutting programs in the department addressing climate change, explaining that the DOD is ‘in the business of deterring and winning wars.’
The DOGE has begun tracking the spending cuts with a public live tracker. According to DOGE, the recent cuts have saved $48.37 billion and approximately $322 per taxpayer.
The tracker specifies that the data is compiled by DOGE agents and is not considered official data.
