Trump Labor Department secures eye-popping sum to return to taxpayers amid DOGE push

U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced on Monday that her department will return over $1 billion in unused COVID-era funding back to the taxpayer amid the Trump administration's push for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

In a press release, the Labor Department said $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding will be "returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund" and added that "action" is "being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion."

 "The roughly $4.3 billion was intended for states to use for temporary unemployment insurance during the pandemic," the press release states. "Instead, several states continued spending millions of dollars despite no longer meeting necessary requirements, which was uncovered in a 2023 audit conducted by the departm...