WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a nearly 60-page report from Michigan Senator Gary Peters (D- MI), the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, the 19 Inspectors General (IGs) President Trump fired earlier this year identified billions of dollars more in potential savings to taxpayers than DOGE.
“Inspectors Generals have a very important role in government,” said Sen. Peters. “They’re basically the watchdogs. They’re folks that have an independent review of what’s going on in an agency. They look to reduce waste and fraud and if there’s corruption and ferret out corruption. They’re the guardians of taxpayer money.”
The report states the administration fired IGs across several agencies, including the departments of Defense, State, Commerce and Veterans Affairs.
The President has tasked Elon Musk and DOGE to reduce government spending. As of late May, DOGE claims they have saved about 175-billion dollars, about eight and a half percent of Musk’s two-trillion dollar goal. Online reports claim that 175-billion might be inaccurate or inflated and some suggest that the actual savings might be significantly lower.
“I took a look at for this report as to how much they [the IGs] saved the American taxpayers because that’s what they do and it turns out what they saved and the recommendations what they put forward, those 19 Inspectors Generals will be saving about 175-billion dollars of taxpayer money,” said Sen. Peters. “Then we contrasted that to DOGE, the Elon Musk DOGE group, and it turns out they saved more money than DOGE. DOGE has saved less money than the Inspectors Generals and yet the Inspectors Generals were fired. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
Congressional members look to reports from IGs to help craft legislation to reduce waste and fraud. For example, after looking at reports, the Senator’s MEGAByte Act reduced duplicative software purchases.
“So I passed the MEGAByte Act and already that has saved taxpayers 3-billion dollars and we’re gonna continue to do that kind of work,” said Sen. Peters.
Peters said the President fired the IGs with no notice and no explanation, which violates law on terminating IGs. Peters adds if the President was truly interested in finding potential savings, they would leverage the work that has already been done by IGs.
“What this report shows is why the president needs to follow the law,” said Sen. Peters. “He can’t fire people in an indiscriminate way. They’re doing good jobs. They’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to do: reduce waste, fraud and corruption.”
We reached out to the White House on this report and asked if the President would consider reinstating the IGs, but they did not respond.
