This Week In Waste – July 3, 2026
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.
Cloud Services Procurement Must Be Improved
A June 23, 2026, Government Accountability Office report details the necessary improvements that Congress and federal agencies must make to streamline and improve the procurement of cloud services. Read more here.
The Working Families Tax Cuts Delivers the Largest Share of Tax Relief to American Families and Workers
The Treasury Department reported that 97 percent of filers received a tax cut during the 2026 filing season following the enactment of President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts on July 4, 2025. The total amount claimed was $82 billion. Read more here.
Chairman Carr Announces Plan for a Big Auction of 160 MHz of Prime Mid-Band Spectrum, Advancing America’s Wireless Leadership
On June 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency would be voting at its July 22, 2026, meeting on final rules for an auction of 160 MHz of spectrum in the upper C-Band spectrum band. This large swath of spectrum creates what the chairman calls a “super-band” of spectrum available for terrestrial wireless use. Read more here.
Postal Service’s $10 Billion Electric Vehicle Overhaul Escapes Department of Government Efficiency-Era Scrutiny Amid Delays and Financial Warnings
Questions have been raised about whether the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) $10 billion electric vehicle (EV) program has been subject to the same level of review as other federal spending. Nonetheless, members of Congress and taxpayer groups have both criticized the cost and effectiveness of EV acquisition, including Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and CAGW. Read more here.
Artificial Intelligence Helped to Slash Nuclear Licensing Review Times, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Says
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief Data Officer and Deputy Chief AI Officer Basia Sall said that AI helped the agency accelerate the permitting process, cutting one type of nuclear licensing review from four years to nine months. The NRC is using AI tools being made available by the General Services Administration to all federal agencies as well as developing its own AI tools built off of Azure OpenAI. Read more here.
Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Florida Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget Capping Eight Years of Conservative Leadership and Historic Results
A June 29, 2026, press release from the executive officer of the governor revealed that after almost $810 billion in line-item vetoes, the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget is the fourth consecutive year that the state has reduced spending yet continued to provide record support for education, infrastructure, and other programs. The budget proved that “conservative governance can simultaneously reduce the size of government, pay down debt, build record reserves, lower taxes, and make historic investments in Florida’s future.” Read more here.
