U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) is praising the efforts of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) despite some of the criticism he’s seen from Democrats.

Palmer, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, highlighted some of the fraud that DOGE has uncovered in recent weeks.

“I know there’s a lot of consternation about what they’re doing,” Palmer said during an Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday, “but literally, he’s brought in some some computer experts with 21st century technology and done better oversight of the federal government in the last six weeks and we’ve done the last 40 years.”

The congressman was pointing to the fact that 16 agencies reported a total of $162 billion in improper payments in FY2024.

“And when you when you dig down into it, about 54-55% of the improper payment problem is administrative error,” Palmer explained, “failure to verify eligibility and antiquated data systems.”

Palmer believes that reining in these kinds of improper payments can go a long way to solving the nation’s deficit problem.

“So what we need to do is focus on stopping it on the front end,” he argued. “And that’s where we need the improvements in technology, where we need the investment in technology. And this is a huge issue. When you’re reporting 16 agencies are accounting for $162 billion, in a ten year window that’s $1.6 trillion and we’re running a deficit of over $2 trillion every year.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee