DOGE Fallout: Trump Admin Paid $9.5 Billion To Employees To NOT Work; Savings Unclear

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – The Trump administration spent $9.5 billion in 2025 paying federal employees who were not working as it pursued its effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy and cut government spending, according to a new estimate from a congressional watchdog.

The cost came as the administration pushed thousands of employees out of government through its deferred resignation program. The Government Accountability Office said the use of paid administrative leave rose 435 percent during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, six times the level recorded in 2023.

The bigger problem for the administration is that the savings expected from the workforce cuts have not been established.

The federal civilian workforce has fallen by about 12 percent since Trump returned to office, through resignations, firings and new hires. But the accountability office found that the government has not been able to identify the long-term savings resulting from the reductions.

The New York Times reported September 15 on the GAO findings, which put the cost of the administration’s workforce strategy in sharper focus. The administration had initially promised that its broader effort to eliminate what it called wasteful federal spending could save as much as $1 trillion.

The administration has since said its efforts have produced more than $200 billion in savings. Outside experts, however, have not independently confirmed that figure.

At the same time, the federal deficit has increased since Trump returned to office, with the report citing the war in Iran and sweeping Republican-backed tax cuts enacted in 2025 among the factors, NYT pointed out.

The workforce cuts were among the administration’s first targets even though civilian salaries and benefits account for only a small share of the overall federal budget.

In January 2025, the administration sent about 2 million federal employees an email titled “Fork in the Road.” It offered workers continued pay through September if they resigned within nine days. Employees were warned that they were likely to be fired eventually as the administration sought to reduce the size of government.

The strategy raised concerns about the loss of experienced federal workers. Critics have argued that the administration’s purge sacrificed generations of expertise while affecting Americans who depend on federal programs.

“Trump spent billions to push out experienced and badly needed experts across government — this was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told the NYT.

The New York Times also reported that agencies have begun recruiting again following the departures, including for lawyers and technology workers, with greater emphasis on hiring early-career employees.