The Aporia · DOGE caused government to pay $9.5B to federal workers not to work

DOGE caused government to pay $9.5B to federal workers not to work

Read the original at The Independent ↗

Cite

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Scott, O. (2026, September 16). DOGE caused government to pay $9.5B to federal workers not to work. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-trump-musk-government-employees-b3051310.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

The Government Accountability Office reported that federal workers were paid $9.5 billion not to work from 2023 to 2025 under the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program (DRP), which aimed to reduce government size. Senator Patty Murray criticized this move, calling it wasteful and detrimental to essential services like cancer research and park maintenance. In contrast, the Office of Personnel Management claimed that the one-time expense resulted in a $40 billion annual savings for taxpayers, representing a significant return on investment.

Written by AI on 2026-09-16, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In 2025, during Donald Trump's second term, the U.S. government spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers, a significant increase from previous years due to mass firings and buyout programs initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Approximately 140,000 employees accepted deferred resignation offers allowing them full pay until September 30, 2025, while not performing work duties, contributing to a 600% rise in administrative leave salary costs from 2023 to 2025. This program was part of broader efforts to reduce the federal workforce by over 271,000 employees since Trump took office. Critics like Senator Patty Murray argue this approach wasted taxpayer dollars, while supporters claim long-term savings of up to $40 billion annually, despite controversy over its financial impact and operational effectiveness.

Written for “DOGE Buyout Costs” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 6 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 14 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

withheld

no quote in the article backed the model's score

Publisher signals

59/100

The Independent's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Economy/Business

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Independent · 3473 article(s) · 8 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 8 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Owen Scott

84 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction

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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 84 articles by Owen Scott →

Topics

DOGE GAO The Government Accountability Office The Office of Personnel Management the Senate Appropriations Committee

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 6× DOGE ORG · 4× GAO ORG · 2× Musk PERSON · 2× Patty Murray PERSON · 1× SpaceX ORG · 1× The Government Accountability Office ORG · 1× The Independent ORG · 1× The Office of Personnel Management ORG · 1× the Senate Appropriations Committee ORG · 1×

Narrative

Slashing the size of the federal government was one of Trump’s key policies when running for president in 2024, backed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. When Trump took office, Musk became the de facto head of DOGE - an acronym that stands for Department of Government Efficiency, but shares a name with Musk’s favored meme-based cryptocurrency.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-16

2026-09-16 · The Independent

DOGE caused government to pay $9.5B to federal workers not to work · assertive framing

Claims (14 extracted, 1 hedged)

Federal workers were paid $9.5 billion not to work during the DOGE-led drive to shrink the government, according to a congressional watchdog. uncertain

workers → pay → watchdog

The Government Accountability Office found paid administrative surged 435 percent from 2023 to 2025, with as much as $6.7 billion of that associated with the administration’s deferred resignation program. asserted

administrative → find → program

The DRP, a key feature of the DOGE-led crackdown, involved a January 2025 offer by the Trump administration to around 2 million federal workers. asserted

DRP → lead → workers

Employees were given the option to resign while receiving full pay and benefits until September 30 that year. asserted

given → give → September

Some 139,963 people took up the offer, data shows. asserted

data → take → offer

The report, published Tuesday, analyzed payroll data from 76 agencies, representing around 95 percent of the federal workforce. asserted

report → publish → workforce

Senator Patty Murray, vice-chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, tore into the Trump administration in a statement addressing the report’s findings. asserted

Murray → tear → findings

“After promising to cut waste, Trump instead set billions upon billions in taxpayer dollars on fire to quite literally pay people not to do jobs they loved - from researching cancer cures to taking care of our National Parks, and so much else,” she said. asserted

she → promise → Parks

“Trump spent billions to push out experienced and badly needed experts across government - this was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse.” asserted

government → spend → government

The Office of Personnel Management criticized the GAO’s findings in a statement to The Independent. asserted

Office → criticize → Independent

“The GAO report fails to highlight the difference between a one-time expense ($9.5 billion) to reduce the size of the federal government by 270,000 employees and the $40 billion per year savings in taxpayer dollars that this reduction provides,” a spokesperson said. asserted

spokesperson → fail → that

that → slash → cryptocurrency

The department officially shut down in July, with its de facto leader infamously leaving the Trump administration a year earlier amid rumors of a feud with the president. asserted

leader → shut → president

The official DOGE website estimates that around $215 billion has been saved overall through its efforts. asserted

billion → estimate → efforts