The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spent another week slashing hundreds of millions in spending by the federal government, while dodging various legal attempts to block its cost-cutting efforts.
Here are some of DOGE’s big wins this week:
1. Judge shoots down request to stop federal worker firings
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, shot down a request from several federal labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), to pause the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration.
NTEU and four other labor unions representing federal employees filed a complaint Feb. 12 challenging the firing of probationary employees and the deferred resignation program, which gives workers the option to agree to work from an office or resign.
Cooper denied the request to stop the firings, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the unions’ claims.
Instead, Cooper ruled the unions must pursue their challenges through the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which provides for administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
2. Judge says DOGE can keep digging
DOGE was handed another victory by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who denied a request to issue a temporary restraining order preventing Musk and DOGE from accessing data systems at the Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce.
The agencies were asking Chutkan to forbid both Musk and DOGE from terminating, furloughing or putting on leave any of their employees.
Chutkin ruled that DOGE can continue to operate as it is now.
The judge also issued a court briefing schedule for plaintiffs and defendants to file motions for discovery, preliminary injunctions and dismissals, which stretches through April 22.
3. Judge allows DOGE access to data on 3 federal agencies
DOGE scored a win in court after a federal judge declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies.
Unions and nonprofits attempted to stop Musk’s DOGE from accessing records at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The efforts were blocked by District Judge John Bates, who wrote in an opinion that the government was likely correct in categorizing DOGE as an agency, thereby allowing it to detail its staff to other government departments.
Musk praised the decision on X with the caption: ‘LFG,’ an abbreviation for ‘Let’s [expletive] go.’
4. DOGE finds a nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7T in payments
Earlier this week, DOGE announced it had discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments, that was oftentimes left blank.
‘The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),’ DOGE wrote in a post on X.
‘In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.’
The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for its work in identifying the optional field.
According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and are also referred to as the ‘account.’
5. Caesars Palace, MLB stadium, an ice cream truck: DOGE reveals how schools spent billions in COVID relief funds
Schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID relief funds on expenses that had ‘little’ impact on students, such as Las Vegas hotel rooms and the purchase of an ice cream truck, according to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting department.
DOGE revealed Thursday that schools have spent nearly $200 billion in COVID relief funds ‘with little oversight or impact on students.’
Granite Public Schools in Utah spent COVID relief funds on $86,000 in hotel rooms at Caesars Palace, a ritzy Las Vegas Casino, while Santa Ana Unified spent $393,000 to rent a Major League Baseball stadium, according to a report by Parents Defending Education and shared by DOGE.
The cost-cutting department also revealed that schools spent $60,000 in COVID relief funds on swimming pool passes, while a California district used its funds to purchase an ice cream truck.
6. Hegseth working with DOGE to cut the ‘BS’
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is working with DOGE to make cuts within his department, saying he believes it will find waste ‘not core to our mission.’
‘They’re here, and we’re welcoming them,’ Hegseth said in a recent video released Thursday. ‘They’re going to have broad access, obviously, with all the safeguards on classification.
‘They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all.’
Hegseth, who said many DOGE workers are veterans, met with Musk’s team and said they have already started their review of the Department of Defense.
7. DOGE uncovers over 4M government credit cards responsible for 90M transactions
DOGE revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. government has more than 4 million active credit cards on its books.
‘The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,’ DOGE said in a post on X.
The cost-cutting department broke down multiple federal agencies and their credit card use, with the DOD leading the way in both the number of transactions, about 27.2 million, and the number of individual accounts, roughly 2.4 million.
Musk delivered a speech to conservatives Thursday in which he touted the accomplishments of DOGE and, at one point, stood on the stage holding a golden chainsaw given to him by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, symbolizing the cuts being made to government spending, to the delight of the crowd of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
‘We’re fighting Matrix big time here,’ Musk said. ‘It has got to be done.’
Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg, Emma Woodhead, Michael Lee, Greg Wehner, and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
