In an executive order issued Wednesday, President Donald Trump directed agency heads to work with Department of Government Efficiency team leads to build centralized tech systems to record all payments issued through each agency contract or grant — as well as “written justification” for each payment submitted.
“Each Agency Head shall, with assistance as requested from the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, build a centralized technological system within the agency to seamlessly record every payment issued by the agency pursuant to each of the agency’s covered contracts and grants, along with a brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment,” the executive order states. “This system shall include a mechanism for the Agency Head to pause and rapidly review any payment for which the approving employee has not submitted a brief, written justification within the technological system.”
President Trump’s executive order is the latest in a flurry of activity for the nascent DOGE, which has had an outsized impact on federal operations since it was created by Trump through a Jan. 20 executive order. Initially charged with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” DOGE efforts have led to major changes at the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Treasury Department and multiple other agencies.
Wednesday’s executive order also calls on each agency leader to — in consultation with the agency’s DOGE team lead — review all grants and contracts and “terminate or modify (including through renegotiation) such covered contracts and grants to reduce overall federal spending or reallocate spending to promote efficiency and advance the policies of” the Trump administration. Such reviews should begin “immediately” and conclude within 30 days, per the order, and they should prioritize funds disbursed under contracts or grants to educational institutions and foreign entities for waste, fraud and abuse.
Following the review, agencies are directed to “issue guidance on signing new contracts or modifying” existing ones to promote government efficiency and other Trump administration priorities. Agency heads may approve new contracts prior to new guidance on a case-by-case basis, per the order.
The order also stipulates that soon-to-be developed tech systems within each agency will “centrally record approval for federally funded travel for conferences and other non-essential purposes.”
“Once an agency’s system is in place, the Agency Head shall prohibit agency employees from engaging in federally funded travel for conferences or other non-essential purposes unless the travel-approving official has submitted a brief, written justification for the federally funded travel within such system,” the order states.
Wednesday’s executive order also sets in motion a plan to offload federal property, even as more government employees are working in an office because Trump has largely ended remote work flexibility. It requires agency heads, within 30 days, to identify termination rights they have for existing leases and to consult with DOGE personnel and the General Services Administration to determine which ones should be ended. Then, 30 days after that, the order requires GSA to submit a plan to dispose of property that agencies no longer need.
Unlike most other federal contracts, leases generally do not have termination for convenience clauses that enable the government to easily exit the agreements. Pillsbury law firm this month hypothesized that agencies seeking to end leases could take advantage of early exit provisions, under which the agency and lessor agree on a date to terminate the lease before it is completed.
DOGE has been targeting leases for termination almost since the start of the second Trump administration, saying the focus is on “unoccupied” and “mostly empty” office buildings.
As of fall 2024, GSA has more than 8,100 separate leased properties.
