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

Welcome to earlier DOGE status updates

DOGE January 2025 Timeline: Recap of Elon Musk, Executive Branch Moves

January 31 - Treasury Official Retires: David Lebryk, a top Treasury Department nonpolitical career official, retired after clashing with Musk allies over government payment systems, The Hill reported.

January 31- and DEI Spending Cuts: DOGE claims it will save the federal government $1 billion by cutting DEI-related contracts, The National Desk reported.

January 31 - HR Database Lockout: Musk shut out senior government workers and seized control of key workflows in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), raising some security concerns from some critics, Reuters reported. OPM essentially is the government’s human resources agency, managing policies, payments, recruitment, and labor relations, The Daily Beast noted. The database contains the personal data of millions of federal employees, the report added.

January 30 - Musk Visits GSA Office: Musk visited the General Services Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nextgov/FCW reported. GSA, located a few blocks from the White House, is a centralized hub that helps the government buy tens of billions of dollars worth of products and services, manage its real estate and use technology, the report noted.

January 29 - JD Vance's Perspectives: U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that the “most important” aspect of DOGE is the program’s ability to identify bureaucratic hurdles that get in the way of President Trump being responsive to the country’s needs, The New York Post reported, based on a Fox News interview. “The most important thing that [DOGE is] going to do, I don’t even think it’s the cost savings, it’s making the bureaucracy responsive to the elected president,” Vance told Fox News. 

January 29 - Condom Controversy: The Trump administration claims the Biden administration authorized $50 million for condoms in Gaza. However, the International Medical Corps said: “No U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms, nor provide family-planning services.”

January 29 - Where's Musk?: Elon Musk has told friends that he's sleeping at the DOGE offices in Washington, D.C., Wired reported.

January 29 - Lobby Pushes for Digital Identity Technology: An industry coalition is urging DOGE to jumpstart the widespread adoption of mobile drivers licenses and other digital identity solutions to help combat online fraud and cyber crime, Federal News Network reported.

January 29 - Will Iowa Emulate DOGE? The state of Iowa will seek to create its own version of DOGE in a bid to find and eliminate wasteful state-level government spending, Governor Kim Reynolds said.

January 28 - Why Ramaswamy Exited: Vivek Ramaswamy told Fox News he wasn’t fired from DOGE. Instead, Ramaswamy said he exited the organization based on his own decision after a discussion with Musk. "We had different and complementary approaches. I focused more on a constitutional law, legislative-based approach. He focused more on a technology approach, which is the future approach.” Ramaswamy now plans to run for office in Ohio.

January 28 - How to Cut Wasteful Pentagon Spending: The Pentagon can eliminate at least $60 billion in waste and inefficiencies, according to a report from The Quincy Institute, Stimson Center, and Taxpayers for Common Sense. The spending cuts, according to the report, should involve:

• Cancelling or reducing spending on dysfunctional or unnecessary weapons systems;
• making process changes that will encourage greater spending discipline;
• reducing bureaucracy, including both government personnel and the department’s hundreds of thousands of private contract employees; and
• cutting excess basing infrastructure.

January 28 - Pentagon Supply Chain: In a letter dated January 24, General Atomics CEO Linden Blue urged Elon Musk of DOGE to reform and simplify the Pentagon’s defense acquisition system, Reuters reported. General Automics develops military drones. Related: See all DOGE updates.

Continue to next page for DOGE status updates from January 25, 2025 and earlier.