DOGE Cuts Update Today: IRS Changes Revealed

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency announced a change to the IRS's website on Wednesday.

In a post on X, DOGE said the button for people to sign in to their accounts on the IRS website had been "weirdly placed" in the middle of the page instead of the top right of the page's navigation bar.

"An IRS engineer explained that the *soonest* this change could get deployed is July 21st... 103 days from now," the post said. "This engineer worked with the DOGE team to delete the red tape and accomplished the task in 71 minutes."

The post also included pictures showing the change, adding: "There are great people at the IRS, who are simply being strangled by bureaucracy."

Contracts Canceled

DOGE said on Wednesday that agencies had terminated 108 contracts with a "ceiling value" of $205 million over past two days, representing savings of about $70 million.

A DOGE post on X said the terminated contracts included a $14,000 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for an "executive transformational leadership training program" and a contract with the Office of Personnel Management worth $5.2 million to "provide strategic advisory and assistance to improve and transform current processes and organizational systems."

How Many Jobs Has DOGE Cut So Far?

Tens of thousands of job losses have been announced across various federal agencies.

Layoffs are underway at the Department of Health and Human Services, which initially announced that it would eliminate 10,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees, the Associated Press reported.

The IRS also plans to lose 18,000 employees, about 20 percent of its workforce. Last month, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has since resigned, told Congress that the United States Postal Service would cut 10,000 workers.

The Department of Education has announced plans to lay off more than 1,300 employees, while the Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a reorganization that includes cutting 80,000 jobs, according to an internal memo the AP obtained in March.

The Pentagon reportedly plans to cut its civilian workforce by about 50,000 to 60,000.

At least 24,000 probationary workers have been terminated since President Donald Trump took office in January, according to a lawsuit filed by almost 20 states alleging that the mass firings are illegal. In March, two federal judges ordered 19 federal agencies to reinstate fired probationary workers.

About 75,000 federal workers have accepted the Trump administration's offer to resign and continue receiving pay and benefits until September 30.

How Much Spending Has DOGE Cut So Far?

DOGE said its efforts have saved the federal government an estimated $150 billion as of April 8. Musk, who heads the department, initially said his goal was to trim $2 trillion from the federal budget. In January, he backtracked, saying there was a "good shot" of cutting half that amount.

DOGE said the receipts provided on its website—showing contract, grant and lease cancellations—represented about 30 percent of total savings, meaning the top-line figure is not yet verifiable.

According to the Musk Watch DOGE Tracker designed by data analyst Brian Banks, the verifiable savings were about $11.7 billion as of April 1, including actual savings from verifiable grants and contracts as well as real estate.

Is DOGE a Government Agency?

On January 20, his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order officially creating DOGE to modernize "federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."

Despite its name, DOGE is not a government agency created by an act of Congress but a task force that targets waste and fraud in the federal government.