Nearly $1.4 billion in unused funds allocated by the US government in 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have been returned to the treasury, the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is controlled by Elon Musk, announced.
The funds are part of $4.3 billion that was intended to combat COVID-19, but were not actually spent. Work to recover the remaining $2.9 billion is ongoing.
Immediately after US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, DOGE began a large-scale audit of the US government's budget spending. According to Musk, the service expects to reduce Washington's government spending by $2 trillion. In fact, at Musk's initiative, the activities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were temporarily suspended for the purpose of its further reorganization.