The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[Angrboda]

A CNN review of contracting data showed that about two-thirds of the total claimed savings from contracts listed on the DOGE site came from taking the maximum amount that could possibly have been spent on so-called “indefinite delivery” contracts like the questionable ICE contract — even if the government was unlikely to spend that much. One former federal contracting official called DOGE’s savings claims “completely disingenuous.”

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The ICE contract wasn’t the only questionable savings amount claimed by DOGE. The second-, third- and fourth-largest savings listed on the DOGE site came from three IDV contracts signed by the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, related to services for the agency’s research office. Each contract lists a maximum ceiling value of $655 million.

Since the contracts were signed in 2020, the government has only committed to spending about $55 million in total under all three of them over the last four and half years, according to USA Spending data. But because DOGE’s tally of savings uses the maximum possible amount that could theoretically be spent on each, the department is claiming it saved taxpayers more than $1.9 billion in total by canceling them.

Overall, about two-thirds of the total savings claimed from contracts listed on the DOGE site — including the original $8 billion listed for the ICE contract — came from IDV contracts, with the savings amount relying on the maximum possible spending.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/...index.html