Trump formally asks Congress to claw back approved spending targeted by DOGE

The White House on Tuesday officially asked Congress to claw back $ 9.4 billion in already approved spending, taking funding away from programs targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. It’s a process known as “rescission,” which requires President Donald Trump to get approval from Congress to return money that had previously been appropriated. Trump’s aides say the funding cuts target programs that promote liberal ideologies. The request, if it passes the House and Senate, would formally enshrine many of the spending cuts and freezes sought by DOGE. It…

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House Budget Hawks Cheer DOGE Package

The White House’s delivery to the House of Representatives of a package that would codify some of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts into law was greeted with enthusiasm by the fiscally hawkish House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday. The rescissions package, delivered by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to Republican House leadership, would codify $ 9 billion in cuts to USAID, as well as funds to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Rescissions packages can be passed with a simple majority in…

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How can DOGE fix federal IT? Lock out vendor lock-in

In the midst of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s headline-making actions, it’s a good time to remember that DOGE’s mandate is to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” by “modernizing federal technology and software.” Federal IT is a worthy target for Musk and his team of efficiency hackers. It’s overpriced, with various estimates pegging the government’s costs at two to four times the private sector’s. It underdelivers compared to what’s available outside of government, as anyone who has held positions in both sectors will attest. And it is difficult to…

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Top House Democrats seek DOGE details, questioning if it operates ‘outside the bounds’ of US law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia are seeking detailed information about the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and some 40 other people, to carry out firings of federal workers and dismantling of federal agencies.…

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Is DOGE Losing Steam?

President Donald Trump’s shift on the Department of Government Efficiency began with a warning from an unlikely source. Jesse Watters, a co-host of the Fox News hit show The Five, is usually a slick deliverer of MAGA talking points. But on February 19, Watters told a surprisingly emotional story about a friend working at the Pentagon who was poised to lose his job as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. “I finally found one person I knew who got DOGE’d, and it hit me in…

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