A union and watchdog groups say the new “Department of Government Efficiency” is rife with conflicts of interest and violates the law.
HUFFPOST
A group of organizations immediately sued the Trump administration as the president was inaugurated on Monday, arguing that its new “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency law.
DOGE is headed by Donald Trump allies Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the conservative entrepreneur. Its stated aim is to help Trump enact massive cuts to government spending and make the federal bureaucracy “more efficient.”
Despite its name, DOGE is not a real government department and isn’t subject to the same oversight and accountability as normal federal agencies. The lawsuit alleges DOGE runs afoul of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a law passed in 1972 to ensure that the advice given by advisory bodies is ideologically balanced and transparent to the public.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing federal workers, and the watchdog groups Public Citizen and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.
“DOGE’s members do not have a fair balance of viewpoints, meetings are held in secret and without public notice, and records and work product are not available to the public,” the groups said in a joint statement Monday.
They pointed out that Musk’s role running DOGE creates a slew of conflicts of interest. His aerospace company SpaceX has received billions of dollars in federal contracts, and there’s concern Musk will recommend policies that benefit him financially at the expense of taxpayers or other firms.
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