Sen. Blackburn backs DOGE, Elon Musk. Says billions of dollars found wasted

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, is backing the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Blackburn took the Senate floor on Wednesday to tout DOGE’s work on uncovering “billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.”

This comes after she introduced the DOGE Acts, which include:

• Federal Freeze Act
• Commission to Relocate the Federal Bureaucracy Act
• Federal Employee Performance Accountability Act
• Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act (SHOW UP)
• 1%, 2% 5% Across the Board Spending Cuts

So far, according to the Associated Press, thousands of federal government employees have been fired or laid off during the first stretch of Pres. Trump’s administration in 2025.

Blackburn said that DOGE has discovered billions of dollars in wasteful spending:

“Among many other reasons, that’s why they returned President Trump to the Oval Office with a mandate to restore government accountability. And since Inauguration Day, the President has been hard at work. In one of his first acts back in office, President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Led by Elon Musk, the agency has worked to uncover and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government. And to no one’s surprise, DOGE has found a lot of waste, especially with programs that should have never existed. In recent weeks, the agency has cut $33 million in Education Department grants to groups that push far-left ideas like critical race theory; $44.6 million in canceled leases for unused federal office space; $45 million in scholarships for students in Burma; $182 million in Department of Health and Human Services contracts that had nothing to do with health, including a $168,000 museum exhibit for Anthony Fauci; $1 billion in DEI programs; and on and on.”

She also claimed that DOGE is restoring government accountability.

“In addition, DOGE has worked to reform the mismanaged United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Under the last administration, the agency used its $40 billion budget to support left-wing and anti-American causes around the world, including terror-tied extremist groups in the Middle East. As DOGE uncovers the Left’s abuse of taxpayer dollars, Washington Democrats have tried desperately to paint the agency as unaccountable to the American people. But the exact opposite is true: DOGE, which reports directly to President Trump, is restoring government accountability by helping rein in the federal bureaucracy. That’s why, last week, President Trump issued an executive order to support DOGE, directing federal departments to work with the agency to reduce the size of the federal workforce. A downsize is desperately needed: the government employs more than 2.4 million civilian employees at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars each year.”

In early February, two Tennessee lawmakers introduced the “STOP ELON Act,” which they say aims to hold people accountable for unlawfully interfering with the distribution of government benefits that families rely on.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and Rep. Jason Powell (D-Nashville) introduced the act, which is also called the “Shielding Tennesseans from Oligarchic Power & Eliminating Lawless Obstruction of Necessities Act.”

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his office would be reviewing Tennessee House Democratic Leader Karen Camper’s (D-Memphis) request for him to launch an investigation after DOGE gained access to critical federal systems.