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DOGE Timeline: Efficiency and Technology Goals, Target Milestones, Lawsuits and Reality Checks

February 7, 2025 by Joe Panettieri

DOGE, short for the Department of Government Efficiency, was envisioned to cut U.S. regulations and eliminate wasteful government spending.

Dig a little deeper, and DOGE's mission includes a mandate to modernize federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity, according to an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on his inauguration day in January 2025.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Can multi-company CEO Elon Musk lead DOGE to success?

Among the big questions:

  • Is it legal for President Trump to launch DOGE within the executive branch of the U.S. government;
  • can entrepreneur Elon Musk avoid conflicts of interest between his personal business efforts and DOGE responsibilities; and
  • can Doge deliver on its lofty cost cutting ambitions?

With those and other variables in mind, here's a timeline tracking Department of Government Efficiency goals, developments, milestones, lawsuits, hudles, reality checks and more.

What Is DOGE's Mission? The Department of Government Efficiency Explained

First, some background: During Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy evangelized the DOGE concept -- stating that such an office could lead to a 75% reduction in the federal workforce, a $2 trillion cut to federal spending and the elimination of entire agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to National Public Radio.

Raising the stakes even higher, Musk and Ramaswamy said office should be a temporary endeavor that shuts down on July 4, 2026. 


Vivek-Ganapathy-Ramaswamy
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy exited DOGE the same week that the office launched

Ramaswamy foreshadowed the potential strategy in his book, Truths: The Future of America, NPR notes. The three-step strategy, NPR paraphrases, involves:

  1. Appoint a czar who is accountable for permanently taming the administrative state.
  2. Embed lawyers in every agency to find unconstitutional regulations.
  3. Present these findings to the president — who could end regulation through executive order and therefore eliminate jobs and possibly entire agencies, according to NPR's summary.

Fast forward to January 2025. When Trump's second term as president kicked off, he signed an executive order to form DOGE. And by early February 2025, the White House said Musk is officially serving under Trump as a special government employee, CNN reported. The designation means Musk is not a volunteer but also not a full-time federal employee, the report said. Moreover, Musk will self-police himself on potential conflicts of interest, the White House has said.

DOGE February 2025 Timeline: The Scorecard So Far

Now, here's that timeline tracking DOGE goals, developments, milestones, changes, criticisms, reality checks, lawsuits and more. Check back regularly for updates...

February 6 - State Attorneys General Coalition Plans Lawsuit: Roughly 13 to 14 state attorneys general plan to file a lawsuit to stop DOGE's access to sensitive personal information.

February 6 - Department of Energy Access: Energy Secretary Chris Wright granted a DOGE representative access to the Energy Department’s IT system on February 5, 2025, CNN reported. The access arrived despite objections from members of the department’s general counsel and chief information offices, the report said. The DOGE representative apparently is Luke Farritor, a SpaceX intern, multiple reports said.

February 6 - USAID and Small Businesses: DOGE's effort to gut the USAID department threatens billions of dollars in aid for U.S. farms and small businesses, The Washington Post reported.

February 6 - Federal Data Sent to Microsoft Azure for AI Analysis: DOGE team members are feeding U.S. Department of Education data into an AI system hosted by Microsoft Azure, The Washington Post reported. The effort involves a hunt for potential spending cuts, but data privacy experts are concerned about the strategy, the report said.

February 6 - DOGE Team Member Resigns: A DOGE staffer has resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his alleged connection to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics, The Journal reported.

February 6 - Read-Only Treasury System Access: A judge approved a temporary agreement that allows two Musk allies to retain read-only access to payments system containing the personal and financial data of millions of Americans, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the agreement prohibited the two men, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, from sharing sensitive Treasury data with anyone outside the agency. Shortly after the ruling, Elez resigned amid questions about previous social media activities.

February 6 - Resignation Deadline On Hold: A judge paused today's deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer while more proceedings on the program’s legality play out, CNN reported.

February 6 - Federal Government Resignations: More than 40,000 federal workers have raised their hands to resign, putting the Trump administration at risk of falling short of its target for slashing the government through voluntary measures, The Wall Street Journal reported. The resignation offer, designed to pay departing employees through September 2025, has a deadline of 11:59 p.m. on February 6, 2025.

February 5 - Investigating Medicare and Medicaid Services: DOGE representatives have access to key Medicare and Medicaid payment and contracting systems, The Wall Street Journal reported. The strategy involving hunting for what DOGE considers wasteful spending while "examining the agency’s organizational design and how it is staffed." Referring to Medicaid payment systems, Musk wrote on X: "Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening."

February 5 - USAID Employees - What's Next? Almost all USAID employees will be put on paid leave starting February 7, 2025, The New York Times reported.

.February 4 - Legal Question Marks: The Wall Street Journal published a list of potential legal issues facing DOGE.

February 4 - Are DOGE Moves Illegal?: U.S. government officials are privately warning that Musk's DOGE blitz appears illegal, The Washington Post reported.

February 4 - Department of Education: DOGE is scrutinizing the U.S. Department of Education, which Trump ultimately wants to shut down, The New York Times reported.

February 4 - Read-Only Access to Treasury Department: The Treasury Department said it is conducting an “operational efficiency assessment” of its payment systems and that the agency hasn’t suspended or rejected any payment instructions, after people tied to DOGE gained read-only access to the system, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Continue to next page for DOGE status updates from February 3, 2025 and earlier.

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