Tillis Questions Vought on DOGE Accomplishments at Senate Hearing

Sen. Thom Tillis questioned Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on July 10 about concrete accomplishments of the Department of Government Efficiency. During the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Tillis asked Vought to name one DOGE initiative that represented an "exquisite realization of the value" the agency brought.

When Vought began discussing federal workforce cuts, Tillis interrupted and requested specific examples, stating he did not want a "word salad answer," The Hill reported. DOGE officially ceased operations on July 4. As of October 2025, DOGE estimated $214 billion in savings through asset sales, contract and grant cancellations, fraud reduction, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.

The figure equated to $1,329 per taxpayer according to a national debt tracking site. In December 2025, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility stated the Trump administration's deferred resignation program cost taxpayers an estimated $10 billion.

Nearly 140,000 federal employees agreed to leave through the program, which provided full pay and benefits until September 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Tillis, who announced his retirement in 2025, asked Vought for a written consultation identifying which agencies saved the most money due to DOGE. He cited departures of experienced staff, including scientists from the National Institutes of Health, and erroneous termination notices sent to employees.

Tillis noted his prior work at PricewaterhouseCoopers and said some of the issues described would have resulted in termination within a week at that firm.