Speaker says executive order linked to mass federal departures, $135 billion cost estimate
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Summary
An unidentified speaker at a meeting argued that a Jan. 20, 2025 executive order creating 'Doge' precipitated large federal workforce losses, contractor cuts and a claimed $135 billion taxpayer cost; the assertions were presented as speaker statements and are not independently verified in the transcript.
An unidentified speaker opened a meeting to warn that a January 20, 2025 executive order creating a program the speaker called "Doge" has led to a large exodus of federal employees and contractors, damaging services and expertise across the country.
The speaker said "since President Trump signed the executive order to create Doge on 01/20/2025, we've had about over 317,000 federal workers leaving the government, either fired or resigned or simply left," and added that the departures have lowered morale among employees who remain. The speaker characterized the outflow as a "massive brain drain," saying it included "106000 years of experience, of federal workforce experience, from PhD employees alone." The speaker framed the losses as affecting both the local region and other parts of the country.
The speaker also said at least 12,000 contracts were cut and that the change has increased bureaucracy in some agencies. On budgetary impact, the speaker cited "one estimate" that the policy has cost taxpayers $135,000,000,000 and stated, "So not only did we not save money by losing all this talent and expertise, we've actually cost taxpayers even more money." The transcript does not provide the source for that estimate and the figure is reported here as the speaker presented it.
The speaker raised concerns about contracting at the Department of Homeland Security, saying the DHS secretary "has to sign off on every single contract, every single contract herself, and we know she's doing a lot of self dealing." The transcript records the allegation but does not contain a response or documentary evidence in this meeting record.
The speaker said the losses had local consequences in Virginia, reporting that "My district alone, over 24,000 people have lost their jobs just in the federal civil service," and added that these were workers "who care deeply about their work." The remarks concluded with thanks to colleagues and a statement that the matter would remain a congressional priority.
The assertions and numerical estimates in this account are attributed where they appear in the transcript to an unidentified speaker and are not independently verified in the meeting record. The transcript does not include formal motions, votes or official documents to corroborate the specific counts or the budget estimate cited at the meeting. The next procedural step recorded in the transcript is only the speaker yielding back the floor; no formal action is recorded in this excerpt.
