Tracking the Harm of DOGE Cuts

CLASP’s DOGE Tracker is an interactive, sortable database documenting proposed or enacted federal funding reductions and workforce cuts under review by the Department of Government Efficiency. It organizes information by agency and program, recording layoffs, services affected, and the households or people potentially at risk. Entries include timelines, supporting documentation, and links to official materials, making the tool useful for policymakers, researchers, and advocates assessing the scale and consequences of federal budget decisions.

The examples show how staffing reductions could disrupt public services and oversight. The tracker describes roughly 50,000 planned IRS job cuts, including tax-compliance staff, and estimates that lost enforcement would reduce fiscal year 2026 revenue by $12.6 billion while worsening tax-return delays and customer service. It warns that Social Security staffing losses could close field offices and increase disability-benefit backlogs, affecting a system serving 71.6 million people. Other entries document proposed eliminations or deep cuts to public-health, education, child-care, and civil-rights offices. They set these changes against programs’ past reach: Head Start served more than 778,000 children and pregnant people in 2023, while CDC initiatives have supported millions of tests, disease-prevention efforts, and community services. The tracker’s central argument is that staffing and funding cuts can weaken both direct assistance and the institutions that administer, research, or oversee it.