The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency laid out a series of startling findings on Sunday showing the Biden-Harris administration granted hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts to the unlikeliest of vendors: children.
An agency announcement listed $312 million in payments from the Small Business Administration to companies whose purported owners are under the age of 11. The disclosure comes as DOGE seeks to root waste, fraud, and abuse from federal line items.
“While it is possible to have business arrangements where this is legal, that is highly unlikely for these 5,593 loans, as they all also used an SSN with the incorrect name,” the agency wrote. “@DOGE and @SBAgov are working together to solve this problem this week.”
While making the announcement, DOGE also revealed that another $333 million was doled out in 3.095 loans between 2021 and 2022 to businesses whose owners are age 115 or older.
In one case cited by Fox News, a 157-year-old business owner received grants totaling $36,000, including from the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan intended to keep businesses afloat during shutdowns.
In the case of kiddie owners, Biden administrators appear to have signed off on nearly 5,600 such loans between 2020 and 2021, nearly all of which were forgiven without repayment after the business owners promised to use the funds to keep from laying off staff.
Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting advisor, met with U.S. House Republicans last Wednesday to discuss his goal of eliminating $1 trillion in waste from the government, according to sources who spoke with the outlet. Several GOP members of Congress have publicly expressed doubt about the speed and veracity of some cuts when confronted with angry constituents at local town halls.
As pressure within his party to contain the cuts has grown, President Trump appeared to rein Musk in last week, instructing his cabinet members to exercise discretion over their departments while using Musk and DOGE’s recommendations as their guideposts. In response, Musk has devoted greater time and energy to explaining the need for layoffs and contract cancellations while working quickly to rehire employees who were laid off but later deemed essential.
Now in its seventh week, DOGE has produced evidence of other politically connected contracts that tie back to the Biden administration. One of the former president’s transition team members was associated with a nonprofit that received over half a billion dollars in government grants to manage a Texas facility for migrants, which was never used. The organization listed no other form of revenue on its application, according to DOGE.
Americans’ confidence in DOGE remains high: Recent polls show that 72% support its mission, and President Trump has suggested that “DOGE dividends” may be returned to taxpayers in the form of checks resulting from savings.
The Trump administration scored its biggest legal victory yet when U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts last week sided with DOGE in its funding freeze of $2 billion to contractors who performed work for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Officials have contended that they intend to complete the payments but are in the process of searching for evidence of waste.
