Miss Williams: Doge's savings amount to about half a percent of federal spending, lawmaker presses on disputed restitution figures
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Summary
A lawmaker asked Miss Williams to reconcile large-sum claims — a $2 trillion savings claim, a $9 billion figure cited in media, and testimony that $19 billion in CFPB restitutions were suspended; Miss Williams said Doge's savings are roughly half a percent of FY25 federal spending.
A lawmaker asked Miss Williams to reconcile several large-sum figures referenced during testimony and in media reports, including an assertion that "Elon" had saved $2,000,000,000,000, a CNN report that listed $9,000,000,000, and testimony (attributed in the transcript to "Miss Greenwald") that $19,000,000,000 in restitution or payments to CFPB consumers had been suspended.
The lawmaker asked whether the $19 billion figure was larger than the savings claimed. Miss Williams replied that, relative to total federal spending in fiscal 2025, the savings attributed to "Doge" are "about half a percent," and acknowledged being put on the spot when asked to reconcile the numbers. She did not confirm the provenance of each cited dollar amount; the exchange records the lawmaker citing a CNN story and testimony by another witness.
The transcript does not provide documentary evidence for the $2 trillion, $9 billion, or $19 billion figures within this segment; the lawmaker referenced those numbers from media reporting and other testimony. The exchange centers on scale and proportion rather than establishing which specific dollar figures are accurate.
The lawmaker concluded the exchange and yielded back after the numerical comparison.