Budget documents reveal plan to grow DOGE
Elon Musk is out, but the Trump administration still wants to beef up funding and staffing for its DOGE operation, according to budget documents released last week.
Tucked inside the lengthy budget appendix the White House released Friday are details about the administration's post-Musk vision for DOGE.
In the early days of the Trump administration, the DOGE team has made waves throughout the federal government with its push to slash the workforce, eliminate agency contracts and terminate leases. As Musk announced his formal departure from DOGE last week, President Donald Trump and top administration officials stressed that the government-cutting operation wasn't going anywhere. And the administration's budget request for fiscal 2026 offers new details about how Trump and his team plan to bolster DOGE in the coming year.
The White House budget request is just that — a request to Congress for funding. But the numbers indicate the administration's priorities for boosting or cutting staff in the government.
Broadly, the administration is eyeing steep cuts to nondefense discretionary spending — a reduction of about 23 percent below the currently enacted level. The White House has asked for cuts to energy and environmental agencies.
But at the same time, the White House wants DOGE to grow, the documents show.
The total staff working for the U.S. DOGE Service — a White House technology shop that was rebranded when Trump took office — employed an estimated 89 staffers in fiscal 2025, the document shows. That includes staff listed as direct full-time employees as well as 'reimbursable' full-time employees.
That number would grow from 89 to 150 in fiscal 2026 under the White House's budget request.
Those 'reimbursable' employees are typically assigned to another agency that pays back the costs of their employment. Trump's January executive order creating the U.S. DOGE Service directed each agency head to establish its own DOGE team with at least four staffers.
The administration has been tight-lipped about the roster of DOGE staffers, apart from public appearances by Musk and some senior DOGE aides. Musk and other DOGE staffers joined Fox News in March for an interview about their work behind the scenes.
A New York Times investigation has identified more than 70 people aligned with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, some of whom have ties to Musk's companies and some of whom appear to have worked for DOGE at several government agencies.
In an Oval Office press conference with Musk on Friday, Trump said that many of the DOGE people 'are staying behind.' Musk said that the DOGE team and its influence 'will only grow stronger.' The Tesla CEO compared DOGE to a 'sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life.'
DOGE would also get more money under Trump's budget plan.
The operation spent an estimated $20 million in fiscal 2025, including $1 million for a 'software modernization initiative' and another $19 million through 'reimbursable program activity.'
The budget request envisions DOGE boosting its spending in fiscal 2026 to $45 million, including $10 million for software modernization and another $35 million through reimbursable program activity.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the administration's bid to boost DOGE's staff and funding.
It's unclear whether the number encapsulates the full DOGE team in the government, which has hired temporary special government employees to serve brief stints at agencies. Musk estimated in March that DOGE had grown to about 100 employees with plans to grow to about 200.
Trump's critics — including the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee — panned the plan to grow DOGE while shrinking other federal programs.
'The request includes $10 million for the U.S. DOGE Service, supporting 30 full-time employees to continue Elon Musk's slash and burn campaign to decimate government well after his departure as a Special Government Employee,' Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel, said in a news release.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen, said the administration's bid to 'enhance the budget of this anti-efficiency effort, while cutting funding for parks, health care, education and more, is appalling.'
The budget document describes DOGE's mission as being technology focused, although the operation in the early days of the Trump administration and under Trump's leadership have shown the DOGE effort to be broad and aimed at enacting deep cuts to spending and personnel.
'U.S. DOGE Service (USDS) transforms Federal technology and software, driving unprecedented efficiency and productivity,' the document says. 'By advising Federal agencies on the tools to deliver high-impact outcomes, USDS streamlines government operations and tangibly improves the lives of the American people.'
Gilbert, by contrast, described DOGE as 'the leading edge of this administration's corruption and lawlessness, illegally attacking agencies, threatening the data privacy of all Americans, and removing critical employees and programs that provide services we all depend on.'
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