Dept of Ed spending soared 749% despite downsizing, new DOGE-inspired initiative reveals

Fiscal watchdog group OpenTheBooks is embarking on a new DOGE-like initiative that found federal agency spending has far outpaced the size at which the government is expanding.

OpenTheBooks' data on the Department of Education is part of a wider initiative being unveiled by the group on Thursday to chart agency outlays versus agency spending in an effort to provide the public with "a clearer picture of the government as it stands." As OpenTheBooks tracked agency spending versus size, it found that federal agency spending has far outpaced the rate at which these agencies have grown over time.

In a report announcing the new initiative, the fiscal watchdog group cited complaints about purported cost-saving efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its leader, tech billionaire Elon Musk, questioning the need for spending cuts in the face of a federal workforce that has largely remained static in terms of size.

In some cases, such as with the Department of Education, the group found as much as a sevenfold increase in spending while staff headcounts remained relatively static or even went down. At the National Institutes of Health, for example, staff levels appreciated by 21.5%, but spending grew 301%.