The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, ended its official activities on the 4th (local time), 1 year and 6 months after its launch. The official website that had been announcing savings results also stopped access that day. President Donald Trump, who created the organization on his first day in office vowing to reduce federal government expenditure and staffing, specified this day, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as the end date in an executive order. As scheduled, the sign came down, but the Trump administration continued the downsizing effort by releasing a new regulatory plan to eliminate or ease 702 federal rules just before DOGE shut its doors.
According to Fox Business on the 6th, the Trump administration decided to end DOGE's activities without issuing a final settlement of account report summarizing what and how much DOGE cut. Russell Vought, Director General of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said at a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the 30th of last month, "There are no plans to release a settlement of account-type DOGE report," adding, "The fruits DOGE achieved are scattered across the entire government."
Despite its name, DOGE was not a formal department that made laws or directly slashed budgets. It was an 18-month temporary organization created when President Trump reorganized existing digital administration bodies, tasked with planting reduction teams in each department and pressing them to reexamine contracts, subsidies, and staffing. Announcing its launch, President Trump said, "A smaller government that is more efficient and less bureaucratic is the perfect gift America receives on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence."
Founding chief Musk said in Dec. 2024, "The final stage of DOGE is deleting itself." Musk left DOGE in May last year, saying he would focus on his own businesses such as Tesla. Less than six months later, in Nov. last year, DOGE's central organization was effectively dismantled. At the time, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja told Reuters, "DOGE no longer exists." According to Fox Business, DOGE said in its final post on X (formerly Twitter) on the 4th, "The official mission is over, but the mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse of authority continues," adding, "We hope this principle carries on for America's next 250 years."
At its launch, DOGE pledged to cut federal expenditure by up to $2 trillion (about 3,064 trillion won) before lowering the target to $1 trillion (about 1,532 trillion won). As of the end, the website said it saved $215 billion (about 329 trillion won) by cutting overlapping software licenses, canceling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) subsidies, and terminating leases for underused offices. That is just over 10% of the original target. Even that figure stirred verification controversy. Political outlet Politico reported in August last year that "DOGE inflated results by counting the maximum contract ceiling as if it were actual savings or including amounts already executed." Fox Business also said, "The data DOGE released does not fully back the total claimed amount."
Experts point to staffing cuts as the area where DOGE left the clearest mark. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) tallied that from Dec. 2024 to January this year, staffing at 22 major federal agencies fell by 256,000, an 11% decline. The Department of Education's workforce fell by more than 45% over the same period. However, some agencies determined they had let go of too many specialists and called employees back. Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey said at a hearing on the 30th of last month, "DOGE argued that we had to cut many public servants who were doing an excellent job," adding, "They pushed cuts without even knowing what they were talking about, then soon realized they had to bring people back."
The work DOGE had been doing is now handled by permanent White House offices. Staffing cuts and hiring controls have been passed to the Office of Personnel Management and each department, while repeal of regulations has gone to OMB and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which reviews the creation and repeal of federal regulations. Mark Paoletta, acting Administrator of OIRA, said, "We achieved an unprecedented $211.8 billion (about 324 trillion won) reduction in regulatory costs in fiscal year 2025, but in fiscal year 2026 we will far surpass that record with $1.5 trillion (about 2,298 trillion won)."
On the 3rd, the White House's OMB-affiliated OIRA released the 2026 regulatory plan containing 702 federal rules to be repealed, eased, or reviewed. That is 220 more than last year's plan (482). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will review the light- and medium-duty vehicle emissions standards set under the Biden administration and scrap the carbon emission standards for fossil-fuel power plants. The Department of Agriculture will revise work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and rules governing retailers, and the Department of Commerce will lower export controls on drones supplied to allies while crafting new standards to support the overseas spread of U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) technology.