‘We’ve contracts upon contracts that we are able to ship and supply this info to you,’ the White Home press secretary mentioned.
The Trump administration launched receipts of federal contracts that the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) has revoked in its efforts to downsize authorities spending, the White Home mentioned on Feb. 12.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced DOGE’s evaluation of the contracts throughout a press briefing on Wednesday. She mentioned the advisory fee has a web site the place staffers put up the “receipts of the contracts that they’re reviewing and the funds that they’ve stopped from going out the door” in coordination with company heads.
Democrats in Washington have more and more criticized each the Trump administration and DOGE for probing federal companies with out correct congressional oversight or transparency, as terminating appropriated funds is inside Congress’s authority slightly than the manager department. Leavitt pushed again on Wednesday and advised the receipts have been proof of DOGE’s transparency.
“We’ve contracts upon contracts that we are able to ship and supply this info to you,” Leavitt mentioned. “Let me be very clear, we aren’t making an attempt to cover something. We’ve been extremely clear, and we are going to proceed to be.”
The Epoch Occasions reviewed 5 examples of those contracts in a doc despatched by the White Home, together with a roughly $36,000 contract with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) for “variety, fairness, inclusion [DEI], and accessibility coaching for management and supervisors who handle groups.” The contract was solicited in August 2024 and began a month later, however was scheduled to finish on Jan. 22.
President Donald Trump has signed govt orders banning DEI initiatives in federal companies. Leavitt mentioned that the contract is “towards the president’s insurance policies in his ‘America First’ agenda.”
One other fee, value $3.4 million, concerned including 10 new members to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace’s (USPTO) Council for Inclusive Innovation and was described by the White Home as a “public relations agency contract.” With a begin date in March 2023, the contract’s estimated final completion date was not till March 2028.
DOGE additionally terminated a contract from the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service value just below $58,000 for “Sri Lanka local weather change mitigation, adaption, and resilience coordinator providers.” The contract began in September 2023 and was set to be accomplished in September this yr.
Referring to the USDA contract, Leavitt mentioned it was doing “completely nothing” to proceed the pursuits of the American individuals.
One other contract awarded $2.3 million to the Air Power’s Air College to assist its DEI digital actuality coaching course.
The “program is a modernized studying software that consists of a combined digital actuality expertise that makes use of a mixture of interactive eventualities with genuine, real-time dialogue to problem people to have interaction in troublesome variety, fairness, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) conversations,” the contract description states. The contract begin and finish date weren’t listed on the White Home doc.
The final contract the White Home mentioned DOGE eradicated was from the U.S. Division of Labor’s Workplace of Job Corps, value roughly $4 million to assist “DEIA consulting providers and coaching.”
Starting in June 2022, the contract was slated to final till Jan. 22.
USCIS, USPTO, USDA, Air College, and the Labor Division didn’t reply to requests for remark earlier than publication time.
“It’s not non-obligatory for us to cut back the federal bills. It’s important,” Musk mentioned. “It’s important for America to stay stable as a rustic.”
The tech CEO mentioned his group at DOGE is working to institute reforms at a number of companies, together with the Treasury Division.
“We’re actually simply speaking about including frequent sense controls that must be current that haven’t been current,” Musk mentioned. “Let’s take a look at every expenditure and say, ‘Is that this truly in the most effective curiosity of individuals?’ And whether it is, it’s permitted. If it’s not, we must always give it some thought.”
Musk additionally acknowledged his critics, together with the Democrats who see DOGE as a takeover of presidency with out transparency. He advised that Trump and the GOP’s skill to win a authorities trifecta within the 2024 election was a broader mandate for DOGE’s efforts.
“The individuals voted for main authorities reform, and that’s what individuals are going to get,” Musk mentioned.
He additionally dismissed considerations that he possesses a battle of curiosity main DOGE whereas serving as proprietor and CEO of SpaceX, one of many federal authorities’s largest aerospace contractors.
“Transparency is what builds belief,” Musk mentioned, including that the general public can see if any of DOGE’s work advantages him or his corporations.
“And we’ll give him the approval the place applicable; the place not applicable, we received’t,” the president mentioned. “If there’s a battle, then we received’t let him get close to it.”