#DOGE’s Millions: As #Musk & #Trump Gut Government, Their Ax-Cutting Agency Gets Cash Infusion
The Department of Government Efficiency is funded — & acts — like a federal agency. But the White House has shielded DOGE from the rules that govern such agencies, #ProPublica found as it examines the group & expands a list of DOGE workers.
#law #kleptocracy #broligarchy #technocracy
https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-trump-musk-funding-foia-congress-transparency
While #ElonMusk & his underlings demand budget cuts & layoffs across the federal govt, funding for their agency — the Dept of Government Efficiency — has soared to nearly $40M, @ProPublica found in a review of #OMB records.
#Billionaire investor #Musk has called #DOGE “maximally transparent.” #Trump has said that some 100 people work for the group, but his admin has refused to make #information about DOGE’s spending & operations public.
In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of #DOGE’s inner workings, ProPublica gathered the names & backgrounds of the people employed there. We’ve identified some 46 people, including 12 new names….
#Trump & #Musk have defended DOGE as a tool for trimming fat from what they see as a bloated bureaucracy. The effects of those cuts have proved crippling, bringing a halt to programs that provided essential services to vulnerable populations across the country & the world.
…Most of #DOGE’s money, records show, has come in the form of payments from other #FederalAgencies made possible by a nearly century-old law called the #Economy Act. To steer those funds to the new department, the #Trump admin has treated DOGE as if it were a federal agency. And by dispatching members of its staff to other agencies & having those staffers issue edicts about policy & personnel, DOGE has also behaved as if it has agency-level authority.
The use of the Economy Act would seem to subject #DOGE to the same open-records laws that cover most #FederalAgencies, such as the EPA or the State Dept. However, DOGE has refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act #FOIA requests, saying it operates w/executive privileges. #Musk has also flip-flopped about whether DOGE’s staff members are paid. Initially he said they were not, but earlier this week he said some of them were.
The conflicting stances put the #Trump admin in a bind, legal experts say. If #DOGE is a federal agency, it can’t shield its records….If it’s not an agency, then DOGE’s tens of millions…in funding weren’t legally allocated & should be returned….
“The administration can’t have it both ways,” said Adam Grogg, a fmr dpty gen counsel at #OMB…. “Either it’s an agency covered by #FOIA w/the authority to do what it’s doing, or it’s purely advising the president & can’t be directing agencies….”
