During an interview in March, Elon Musk stated that the U.S. National Park Service had expended almost $1 billion on surveys gauging visitor experiences at these government-run areas. Following this assertion from the tycoon leading efforts to cut budgets under the Trump administration, his comment gained significant traction online. However, there’s no substantiation for this claim, and records indicate that expenditures for comparable agreements were far less substantial.
"DOGE just revealed that the government spent $1 billion on a survey asking if people liked National Parks," says a March 27, 2025, X post .
This identical post has been circulating. elsewhere on X , Facebook , Instagram , Threads , YouTube and Gettr following a March 27 interview by Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel (archived) here In this document, Musk claimed that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a program designed to reduce federal expenditures—had discovered a $1 billion agreement with a firm to carry out a lone 10-question survey for the National Parks Service.
"I often come across waste amounting to billions of dollars without much concern. For instance, take a basic survey consisting of just ten questions that could be conducted using something like SurveyMonkey for around $10,000; however, the government was billed nearly $1 billion for such an endeavor," Musk remarked when Baier queried him about the most astounding aspect he witnessed during his leadership of DOGE.
During the same interview, Elon Musk’s key associate, Steve Davis, mentioned that the park survey was included in an $830 million agreement suggested by the Department of the Interior, which DOGE had stopped.
Musk and Davis seem to be alluding to an event from March 19. X post From DOGE, which highlighted an $830 million agreement sanctioned by the Federal Consulting Group, a branch of the Interior Department. The posting mentioned that the deal was not finalized and that DOGE would be discontinuing operations of the Federal Consulting Group (archived). here ).
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum Additionally, they pointed out the annulment of the supposed survey contract at a March 24 Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, referring to the cost as "sheer deceit." here ).
However, data from USASpending.gov , a governmental site monitoring federal expenditures, has no records from the Department of the Interior, responsible for managing the National Park Service, granting a contract worth more than $800 million for these services (archived) here ).
The biggest contract documented for this agency’s records was from 2022. agreement to offer legal assistance to unaccompanied refugee minors via the Health and Human Services Department. The initiative could be worth up to $896.1 million (archived). here ).
The identical database indicates that the Federal Consulting Group has awarded $87 million worth of contracts since 2010. AFP examined previous expenditures by the Federal Consulting Group and discovered the largest tender it awarded was for about $3 million, around 270 times smaller than the supposed $830 million contract (archived here and here ).
CBS News and The New York Times Previously mentioned with respect to the same information.
The DOGE website , which outlines contracts the group has ended, has been criticized for providing incorrect or redundant data and fails to display any recorded savings amounting to either $1 billion or $830 million related to the Department of the Interior along with a customer survey (archived) here ).
In a document submitted as part of the 2023 federal approval process detailing the approach the National Park Service would take create and gather data from public surveys The agency projected that research focused on enhancing park services would require an annual budget slightly above $2 million. This projection encompassed approximately $28,000 for hiring a program manager, $600,000 for funding external researchers and investigators, along with an additional $1.4 million allocated towards various costs including survey creation and management. here ).
Even though the document doesn’t list the names of contractors involved in the National Parks surveys, the organization has apparently collaborated with academics from different universities in the past, like those at certain institutions. University of Idaho and the University of Washington (archived here and here ).
The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) mandates that federal agencies frequently evaluate their performance and services, and develop strategic plans to enhance them (archived here The National Park Service says It's part of their Visitor Survey Card program (archived) here ), which invites feedback from guests throughout the park system This pertains to how it aligns with this section of the GPRA.
The AFP has refuted other assertions regarding U.S. politics. here .