WASHINGTON (7News) -- As confusion mounts over competing guidance about Elon Musk's email request for federal workers, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims it has already saved the country $55 billion. As of Wednesday morning, the agency has not provided evidence for nearly 75% of its total claim.
Fired federal workers protested on Capitol Hill Tuesday and staged sit-ins at the offices of several senators.
In the weeks since President Donald Trump took office, over 200,000 federal workers positions at more than a dozen agencies have been eliminated, and about 75,000 have accepted buyouts. Back at the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she participated in the accomplishments emails response herself, calling it a "very simple task."
"It took me about a minute and a half to think about five things I did last week, I do about five things in 10 minutes. All federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working and moving," said Leavitt. "We have a country to save and we want this federal government to be responsive to the needs of the American people who reelected this president to have historic, massive reform, and that's what the intention of this idea is."
RELATED | One USAID contractor turns to retail work amid job cuts and uncertain future
In their aim to dismantle a large part of the federal government, several of those fired have been classified as probationary employees. And then, of course, some agencies are being eliminated altogether.
Leadership at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has sent an email to laid-off agency staffers instructing them that they will have 15 minutes to enter their former offices at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown D.C., to retrieve their personal belongings. The staff will only have an opportunity to come in on Thursday or Friday and have also been told not to bring "prohibited items," according to the message, which has been posted on the agency's website.
For some personnel, the time frame is as long as an hour and a half.
LIST | Here are the agencies where federal workers are being fired
A long-time contractor told 7News that she is taking a part-time gig in retail to help pay her bills.
7News first met Margot three weeks ago at a rally to save the USAID and its workforce.
"There's nothing wrong with working in retail," said Margot, who chose not to share her last name publicly. "But that's not the job I was trained for, and it's not what the taxpayers hired me to do." This week the organization Margot has worked with for years sent a memo to 1,600 employees nationwide saying most of them are no longer needed.