DOGE promised to cut federal spending. But a new report shows $9.5 billion was spent paying workers not to work: ‘Most expensive way imaginable’

A Government Accountability Office report issued Tuesday estimated 2025 salary costs for paid administrative leave at $9.5 billion. The office described that total as six times higher than the amount recorded in 2023.

According to Mediaite, payroll records reviewed by the GAO showed agencies using paid administrative leave 435 percent more often in 2025 than in 2023. The report pointed to deferred resignation arrangements as a major reason for the rise.

In January 2025, an email told federal employees they could resign within nine days and keep drawing pay through September. The same message said they were likely to lose their positions later as cuts moved forward.

Most of the leave spending is tied to a deferred resignation program, GAO says

The GAO used program assumptions plus time and attendance records from payroll providers to estimate that about $6.7 billion of the $9.5 billion went to people in the deferred resignation program.

Roughly 140,000 employees accepted that offer, the report figures showed. The federal workforce is reportedly 12 percent smaller in Trump’s second term. This report on spending is part of a broader pattern of federal financial scrutiny, including a separate report that claims corporate donors to Trump’s ballroom project later won federal business.

Cuts associated with the Department of Government Efficiency led to more than 300,000 job losses. Elon Musk and his team first oversaw DOGE.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, responded in a statement. She said, “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.” The pattern of costly government actions extends beyond this report, as Trump also promised every American adult $5,000 if the GOP holds Congress.

Murray also said, “Trump spent billions to push out experienced and badly needed experts across government – this was the most expensive way imaginable to make government worse. Seniors, veterans, and families will wait longer for the help they count on for years to come, all thanks to Trump’s reckless mass firing campaign, which was endorsed by Republicans in Congress who cheered these cuts and refused to join Democrats to put a stop to it.”

The GAO document itself listed the leave totals, the 435 percent increase, and the $6.7 billion share linked to deferred resignations. It did not assign political responsibility for the policy.