DOGE savings GAO report finds widespread gaps in claimed cuts
GAO found major evidence and methodology problems in $110.3 billion of DOGE-reported savings, without calculating a replacement total.
By Renata Fuchs · Policy Reporter
· 3 min read
The DOGE savings GAO report, released August 6, found that the Department of Government Efficiency’s public accounting of $110.3 billion in contract, grant and lease cuts contained broad gaps in evidence and methodology. The congressional watchdog reviewed only that subset of DOGE’s wider $215 billion savings claim, and it did not calculate an audited figure for the initiative’s actual net savings.
The review followed a June 2025 request from Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. It examined Wall of Receipts entries posted from January 20, 2025, through July 7, 2026. DOGE reported $49.2 billion in grant savings, $61 billion from contracts and $113 million from leases in the categories GAO reviewed.
What did the DOGE savings GAO report find?
GAO’s central finding was not that every listed cut generated no savings. Rather, the agency concluded that the public record did not reliably support many of DOGE’s estimates, and that the reported amounts could not be treated as a final measure of money saved.
- Grants: DOGE listed 15,887 terminated grants. GAO said the Wall of Receipts lacked enough information to verify the calculation method or the makeup of savings for 13,553 of them, equal to about 96% of reported grant savings.
- Contracts: GAO found DOGE followed its stated calculation method for 27.5% of reported contract savings, did not follow it for 60.7%, and could not assess the remaining 11.8% because contract identifiers were missing.
- Leases: DOGE claimed $113 million in lease savings, while the listed lease cuts totaled $53.5 million. Of 264 leases identified for termination, 108, representing about $15.3 million of that listed total, were already being terminated when DOGE was established.
One example involved a Defense Health Agency IT-support contract. The Wall of Receipts continued to list more than $1.7 billion in savings even though no termination action was taken, according to GAO reporting described by CBS News and Politico.
GAO also cautioned that applying DOGE’s own contract methodology would not settle the question. A contract’s face-value reduction may omit termination settlements, closeout costs, later obligations or deobligations. Whether a reduced contract value turns into a realized saving can depend on circumstances that were not yet known, the watchdog said.
What the review does and does not establish
The report tests the quality of DOGE’s reported figures, rather than producing a replacement tally for the entire initiative. DOGE’s $215 billion headline included categories beyond contracts, grants and leases, while GAO’s work covered $110.3 billion of claimed savings in those three areas. The findings therefore do not establish a final net-savings total or show that every listed saving was zero.
GAO said DOGE did not respond to its requests for interviews or clarification. It recommended that the Executive Office of the President, through the U.S. DOGE Service, prominently disclose known data-quality issues and limitations on the Wall of Receipts. Peters and Blumenthal called the findings evidence that DOGE misled Americans, a political characterization separate from GAO’s audit conclusions.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
