DOGE Buyout Costs
Since January 2023, the Trump administration has reduced the federal US workforce by approximately 355,000 employees, leaving many struggling to find new jobs while others have been rehired after the administration determined that too many positions had been eliminated.Reported by 4 of 6 outlets; wording from The Guardian.
What happened
Sentences the outlets published, ranked by how many outlets reported the same thing. Nothing here was written by a model.
The Trump administration spent an estimated $9.5 billion last year on paid administrative leave for federal workers as it pushed to cut costs by shrinking the government, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
Agencies’ use of paid administrative leave jumped by 435% from 2023 to 2025, the report found, and salary costs from such leave rose sixfold.
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“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.
Analysis
Agreed
Reported by outlets on both sides of the middle
No sentence was reported across the range.
Disputed
Picked by our model, which is sometimes wrong
No disagreement the check could confirm. That does not prove there is none.
Framing
How the first headlines put it
How it changed
- 16 Sep
The Trump administration spent an estimated $9.5 billion last year on paid administrative leave for federal workers as it pushed to cut costs by shrinking the government, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
- 17 Sep
The US government paid federal workers $9.5bn not to work in 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s attempts to shrink the federal workforce.
Coverage 7 articles
18 Sep The Trump Administration Paid Federal Workers $9.5 Billion To Skip Work
Reason
17 Sep US government paid federal employees $9.5bn not to work amid Doge cuts – report
The Guardian
17 Sep Federal agencies spent $9.5 billion on salary costs for administrative leave in 2025
CBS News
16 Sep Feds paid $9.5 billion in leave costs in 2025 due to DOGE buyout
CBS News
Show all 7 articles
16 Sep DOGE’s ‘Fork in the road’ buyouts cost government nearly $7 billion: Watchdog
Washington Examiner
16 Sep DOGE caused government to pay $9.5B to federal workers not to work
The Independent
16 Sep Trump administration spent $9.5B last year on employee leave, driven by DOGE-era cuts
NBC News
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Built 2026-10-13 from 7 articles. Every sentence on this page is quoted from the linked article; nothing was written by a model except the Summary and the items marked AI, which cite their sources, and the questions and labels under "Disputed". Photos are from the outlets that covered the story, never from articles our check marks sensitive.