Nearly 40 Of Contracts Canceled By Doge Are Expected To Produce No Savings

Nearly 40 of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren't expected to save the government any money, the administration's own data shows.

The Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon Musk last week published an initial list of 1,125 contracts that it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings.

That's usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.

"It's like confiscating used ammunition after it's been shot when there's nothing left in it. It doesn't accomplish any policy objective," said Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law professor and expert on government contracting law. "Their terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesn't accomplish anything for saving money."

Dozens of them were for already-paid subscriptions to The Associated Press, Politico and other media services that the administration said it would discontinue . Others were for research studies that have been awarded, training that has taken place, software that has been purchased and interns that have come and gone.