A potential Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) check remains the talk of many. Which is no surprise given that it could potentially put $5,000 in everyone’s pocket.

President Donald Trump first floated the idea, first proposed by investment firm CEO James Fishback, in late February.

“We’re considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt,” Trump said in a tangent during the Saudi-sponsored FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami Beach last month.

The pronouncement came on the same day as reporting from USA TODAY showed that DOGE’s website published misleading information on the amount of money it has claimed to save, including a nearly $8 billion error.

But how would this new stimulus check come about? Here’s what to know about it:

Is there a DOGE stimulus check?

There has been no indication that DOGE will issue a stimulus check as a result of cost-cutting measures. Any form of stimulus payment issued by the U.S. government would have to be approved by Congress. In other words, don’t expect anything any time soon.

Did people receive stimulus checks in 2025?

Some did, yes.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a stimulus check to taxpayers who did not claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. The credit was for taxpayers who did not receive previous stimulus payments.

The stimulus, announced in December under the Biden administration, was authorized after internal IRS data showed that many eligible taxpayers who filed a 2021 tax return did not claim the Recovery Rebate Credit.

The stimulus payments were issued in December and January. Those who were eligible received up to $1,400, according to the IRS.

Can someone still claim the $1,400 stimulus check?

Taxpayers who did not file a 2021 tax return may still be eligible for the stimulus check if they file their return and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit by April 15, according to the IRS.

What is DOGE

DOGE, officially the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, is an initiative created by Trump and led by “special government employee” Musk.

The mission of DOGE is to slash federal spending, deregulation and “modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

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Who would get $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks?

While Trump didn’t share any further specifics or details about the possible DOGE dividend or its certainty, Fishback’s four-page proposal of the DOGE dividend described it as a refund “sent only to tax-paying householders” and would only go to households above a certain income level as opposed to pandemic-era checks that were sent “indiscriminately.”

Noting the difference from past stimulus checks, Fishback added that DOGE checks would not be inflationary as they would be “exclusively funded with DOGE-driven savings, unlike COVID stimulus checks which were deficit-financed.”

“A lot of low-income households essentially saw transfer payments of 25 to 30% of their annual … income,” Fishback said of the pandemic stimulus checks, adding, “This exclusively goes to households that are net-payers of federal income tax, and what that means is that they have a lower propensity to spend and a higher propensity to save a transfer payment like the DOGE dividend.”