GAO Audit: DHS Claimed $10.5 Billion in DOGE Contract Savings. Auditors Found $92 Million.

A new GAO audit of DHS contract terminations has put a hard number on the DOGE savings claims that federal employees heard all year. The Department of Homeland Security publicly reported that its 2025 contract terminations could let it avoid more than $10.5 billion in costs. The Government Accountability Office checked the math and could account for about $92 million in net savings so far. That is less than one percent of the public figure.

Back in April we covered GAO's first DOGE audit and noted that more were coming. This is one of them: GAO-26-109096, "DHS Contracts: Reported Potential Cost Avoidance from Terminations Will Not Fully Materialize," issued September 3, 2026. Here is what the thirteen-page report actually says.

What GAO Found in the DHS Contract Terminations

Between January 20 and September 30 of last year, DHS terminated 438 contracts. The amount actually obligated on those contracts before termination was $1.67 billion, not $10.5 billion.

GAO then tracked what happened next. DHS deobligated $249 million from the terminated contracts. It also added $157 million back in new obligations, covering settlement costs and work that continued under contracts that were only partly terminated. Net those two figures and the amount actually off the books through March 31, 2026 is about $92 million.

Where the $10.5 Billion Figure Came From

The $10.5 billion is the maximum DHS could have spent if every terminated contract had run to the end of its term. GAO says it is unknown how much DHS would actually have obligated. Ninety-five percent of that figure came from just 30 terminated IT contracts with terms running out to fiscal year 2034.

The work did not disappear, either. DHS's own termination notice said those needs could be met through GSA, and in fiscal year 2025 DHS obligated more than $1.7 billion through governmentwide contracts to buy the same requirements. In GAO's words, those costs "were not avoided but incurred through other contracts."

What GAO Did Not Say

Precision matters here. GAO did not say the savings are zero. It said the real number will be smaller than reported, and that nobody knows how much smaller, because GAO has not independently verified any of DHS's cost-avoidance claims.

GAO also checked DHS's public list of terminated contracts, which showed 521 entries. Forty-four of them were duplicates. The transparency page, in other words, needed its own audit.

Why This Matters for Federal Employees

FEMA absorbed the most terminations of any DHS component, with 139. The largest category of terminated contracts by dollar value was professional services, followed by housekeeping. That is the support structure around the federal workforce, and employees at FEMA, TSA, CBP, and elsewhere watched it go while the reported savings number went up.

This is also report one of a series. GAO's reviews of DHS grants and the 2025 workforce reductions are still to come.

The Practical Takeaway

This report exists because ranking members of the House Homeland Security Committee asked for it. A congressional request is what put these numbers on the record. When an agency publishes a savings figure that no one has verified, oversight requests like this one are how it gets checked. If you want the same arithmetic run on the workforce cuts, your representatives are the people to tell.

Keep a copy of this report. If your agency cites contract or workforce savings as a justification for an action that affects you, the underlying numbers may be worth a closer look.

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Legal Disclaimer: This content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Federal employment situations are fact-specific and time-sensitive. Please consult a qualified federal employment attorney about your specific situation. You can contact Southworth PC at attorneysforfederalemployees.com.