This Week in Waste – July 11, 2025
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior.
FCC Proposes Accelerating Copper Wire Retirement
The FCC is moving to modernize communications infrastructure by accelerating the retirement of outdated copper wire networks. Copper lines, in use since the 19th century, are increasingly unreliable and inefficient for today’s increased data demands. Streamlining their removal will help communities adopt faster, more resilient technologies like fiber and wireless. Read more here.
Artemis Program Driving NASA Cost Overruns
The Artemis program, intended to return astronauts to the Moon and later Mars, accounts for $6.8 billion in cost overruns, which is nearly half of the total $14.9 billion in overruns across 53 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) projects since 2009. The three programs causing the overruns are the Space Launch System at $2.7 billion over budget, the Orion spacecraft at $3.2 billion, and Exploration Ground Systems at $887 million. NASA should tap into the cheaper and successful Commercial Orbital Transportation System to replace Artemis’s overpriced projects with private sector alternatives. Read more here.
Trump White House Payroll Shrinks 29 Percent Year-Over-Year
President Trump’s 2025 White House payroll of $44.1 million for 404 staffers is the lowest since 2009, a 29 percent reduction from President Biden’s $62.2 million payroll for 565 employees in 2024. Trump’s first-term payroll totaled $198.6 million, or 13.6 percent less than Biden’s $230.1 million payroll. Read more here.
Supreme Court Allows Government Job Cuts
The Supreme Court’s decision to lift the injunction on President Trump’s federal downsizing order clears a path for agencies to proceed with employee layoffs. Labor unions and advocacy groups continue to claim the president lacks authority to unilaterally reorganize government without Congress and suggest the layoffs could permanently dismantle vital public services before courts can intervene. The Supreme Court’s unsigned order was partly justified by President Clinton’s 1993 executive order which also reduced the federal workforce. Read more here.
More States Open BEAD Application Portals Under New Rules
Following long-sought revisions in the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Development (BEAD) program, Indiana, Maine, Missouri, and West Virginia reopened their portals on July 10, 2025. On June 6, 2025, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration removed non-statutory guidance and gave states the opportunity to re-bid their BEAD projects. States must meet a September 4, 2025, deadline, including a mandatory 14-day public comment period. Read more here.
