GAO finds DOGE program cost more than $9 billion in paid administrative leave

Trump claims $200 billion in DOGE savings, not independently confirmed

The Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that the federal government paid federal employees more than $9 billion not to work during 2025 as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s program to reduce bureaucracy and spending. GAO, an independent, nonpartisan federal agency that serves as a congressional watchdog, attributed the costs to the deferred resignation track the administration used to shrink the federal workforce.

GAO found that the DOGE approach produced a 435% increase in paid administrative leave, six times the level recorded in 2023. The Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal civil service, “directed agencies to use paid administrative leave to support the deferred resignation program, which generally allowed federal employees to be placed on leave until they resigned or retired by Sept. 30, 2025,” according to the report.

The deferred resignation program, announced by the Trump administration in early 2025, offered federal civilian employees full pay and benefits through September if they resigned by the end of that month. It came with a warning that those who declined would likely be fired eventually.

About 2 million workers were offered the deferred resignation program, and 139,963 employees took it, The Times reported. Spending on civilian salaries and benefits accounts for a small part of the overall federal budget.

The Trump administration planned to drastically cut the size of the federal workforce as part of a plan to reduce wasteful federal spending, promising $1 trillion in savings. The administration has said its efforts led to $200 billion in savings, a figure The New York Times reported has not been independently confirmed.

The federal deficit has also increased due to the Iran conflict and Republican tax cuts in 2025.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a congressional hearing Tuesday that a government initiative to cut spending “is coming,” The Times said.

Federal agencies have since had to rescind the resignations of some workers and backfill more than 20,000 positions, the report said.