Senate Hearing Highlights Dispute Over Department of Government Efficiency’s Reported Savings

During a Thursday Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Republican Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) repeatedly pressed Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budget director and acting CFPB chief, to identify a single, concrete accomplishment of the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Tillis described Vought’s answers as “word salad” and demanded a written briefing on which agencies saved the most money because of DOGE.

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DOGE was launched by President Donald Trump and overseen in its early months by Elon Musk. The agency officially ceased operations on July 4 (year not specified). By October, DOGE claimed to have saved $214 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud deletions, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions—equating to $1,329 per taxpayer according to a debt-tracking site.

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• Thom Tillis – Senator from North Carolina, former PricewaterhouseCoopers executive.

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• Russell Vought – OMB director, acting CFPB director since February 2025; his CFPB tenure ends August 1 under the Federal Vacancies Act.

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• DOGE – The short-lived agency tasked with federal cost-cutting.

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• Democratic critics – Senators Mark Warner (VA) and Angela Alsobrooks (MD); Representative Maxine Waters (CA); Representatives Gregory Meeks (NY) and Rashida Tlaib (MI).

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• Republican supporters – Senator French Hill (AR), Committee Chair.

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• DOGE’s self-reported savings: $214 billion total, $1,329 per taxpayer.

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• Politico verification: of the $52.8 billion DOGE claimed, only $32.7 billion could be substantiated, and actual savings were closer to $1.4 billion—under 5 % of the claim.

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• The deferred resignation program led nearly 140,000 federal employees to leave with full pay and benefits through September.

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Vought defended DOGE’s impact by citing government-wide reductions-in-force and the appropriations process, asserting that “we put it in an archived system” for CFPB website content. He declined to produce an after-action report, noting that DOGE’s budget had already been submitted. Democratic members labeled the treatment of federal workers as “absolutely evil” and demanded a GAO investigation into DOGE’s access to CFPB data.

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Senators Warner and Alsobrooks condemned the administration’s handling of staff cuts, with Alsobrooks describing it as “absolutely evil.” Rep. Waters accused Vought of blocking “billions of dollars from being returned to harmed American consumers” and of “stonewalling” GAO inquiries. Rep. Meeks called the opening of CFPB data to DOGE “reckless.”

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• Savings figures vary dramatically: DOGE’s internal estimate of $214 billion versus Politico-verified $1.4 billion.

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• No formal after-action report exists, leaving the methodology for booking savings undocumented.

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• “All that stuff is amateurish stuff that would have gotten me fired in my job at Pricewaterhouse in a week.” — Thom Tillis, Senator (NC)

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• “I love the idea of DOGE, but what I don’t love is the idea of DOGE shit that we’re picking up because people did it wrong.” — Thom Tillis, Senator (NC)

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• “I’ve never delighted in someone’s failure more than I have delighted in yours,” — Maxine Waters, Representative (CA)

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• “absolutely evil.” — Angela Alsobrooks, Senator (MD)

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• “We put it in an archived” system.” — Russell Vought, Acting Director, CFPB

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Vought’s acting directorship at the CFPB concludes on August 1, after which Brian Johnson is slated to assume the permanent role. Tillis expects a written consultation from Vought on documented DOGE savings before the Senate Banking Committee reconvenes.

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