In a powerful move toward reducing government waste, federal agencies across the United States have cancelled 103 contracts over the past 48 hours, resulting in estimated savings of $4.8 billion for taxpayers.
The announcement came from the Department of Government Efficiency, which highlighted the ceiling value of the scrapped contracts at $6.3 billion. While not every dollar would have been spent, officials stressed that these contracts represented “low-priority or wasteful expenditures” across multiple departments.
One of the smaller but notable cancellations was a $33,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was intended to fund consultants for the Guatemala Youth Conservation Corps development—a project critics say had little direct relevance to U.S. taxpayers.
In contrast, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) terminated a much larger consulting contract worth $1.5 million. This deal was tied to providing “support for state and local climate and energy programs”, a service now being re-evaluated for in-house efficiency.
Contracts Update!
Over the last two days, agencies cut 103 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $6.3B and savings of $4.8B, including a $33k USDA contract for “Guatemala youth conservation corps development consultants”, and a $1.5M EPA consulting contract for “support for… pic.twitter.com/lHKVhOWYqW
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) July 16, 2025
The news sparked public interest following a tweet by the Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE). The tweet rapidly gained traction, with over 370 replies, 1.2K retweets, and 7.9K likes, showing widespread engagement across social media.
This update arrives in the wake of the Senate’s vote to advance a $9 billion spending cut package, which targets major public outlets like NPR and PBS, as well as foreign aid organizations such as USAID. While three Republican senators, McConnell, Collins, and Murkowski, voted against the package, the majority supported it, marking a shift in fiscal strategy.
The agency said more contract reviews are underway, and similar savings could be expected in the coming weeks. “Rooting out inefficiency is a full-time mission,” a spokesperson noted.
The move signals a renewed focus on government accountability and comes as part of a wider trend to redirect public funds toward essential services and infrastructure.
