Trump administration officials acknowledged that the Department of Government Efficiency no longer operates as a “centralized” organization but insisted that the “principles” of the administration’s signature cost-slashing initiative remain alive and well.
The administration pushed back after Reuters reported on Sunday that DOGE had “disbanded” with eight months left to go on the timeline set by the executive order Trump signed in January. The order created DOGE by restructuring the US Digital Service, a preexisting federal agency that was renamed US DOGE Service, and placing it under the authority of the executive branch.
“The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under @USDS. But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc.,” Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, posted on X Sunday. “DOGE catalyzed these changes; the agencies along with @USOPM and @WHOMB will institutionalize them!”
But after DOGE spent months upending the government by laying off or prompting the departure of hundreds of thousands of employees, canceling contracts and dismantling entire agencies, it remains unclear in what exact organizational structure the initiative operates.
US DOGE Service said in a statement on its LinkedIn that President Donald Trump’s executive order remains “in effect,” though that leaves questions about what form it exists.
“USDS is still partnering with agencies to modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” the department said in the post, which was shared by Amy Gleason, who was revealed to be acting administrator of the department in February.
An OPM spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Monday seeking to clarify DOGE’s organizational structure. Gleason referred CNN back to the USDS LinkedIn post. She also serves as a strategic adviser to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to a bio for a panel she served on earlier this month.
Since its inception, DOGE has functioned in an opaque way that made it difficult to determine how it operated, whether it was delivering on its lofty savings promises, who worked for the department and even who was leading it. DOGE was spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who became the public face of the initiative by wielding a chainsaw at a political convention earlier this year to drive home the department’s cost-slashing goals. But the White House had been unable to describe who was leading the agency until Gleason was identified as acting administrator more than a month after DOGE was created.
DOGE embedded many of its employees in agencies across the federal government. Many were designated as special government employees, a status that limited their ability to work to only 130 days. At least some of those staffers have gone on to become permanent employees of agencies.
For instance, at the Social Security Administration, Michael Russo and Aram Moghaddassi were listed as chief information officers in an executive leadership team announcement in September. Both were identified as DOGE members in court filings earlier this year.
In late September, the Office of Management and Budget said in a furlough contingency plan that DOGE had 45 employees. But today it is unclear whether there are any DOGE employees left, and if there are, whether they report directly to Gleason, or whether they report individually to the specific agencies which they were assigned.
DOGE’s online tracker claims it has saved roughly $214 billion, as of October 4, from asset sales, contract and lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, workforce reductions and other measures. However, its calculations have been called into question in the past.
