Politicians, lawsuits and a judicial order are pushing on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to become more transparent, NBC News reported.
A lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to force DOGE to follow the transparency rules that apply to much of the government.
The suit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit devoted to protecting endangered species, says the Office of Management and Budget has not properly responded to requests for information about DOGE’s activities as mandated by the Freedom of Information Act, which broadly requires federal records to be made public if requested.
While DOGE has been the subject of over 20 lawsuits, the Center for Biological Diversity’s case appears to be the first to specifically ask DOGE to follow federal transparency laws. OMB and DOGE representatives didn’t respond to emails requesting comment.
Under FOIA, anyone can request federal government records, with some exceptions, like if the information is classified. Since some agencies take months or even years to process a request, sometimes FOIA filers also file a lawsuit to compel the government to act.
The Center for Biological Diversity suit claims that because DOGE is deliberately moving quickly to cut government funding and staff, and its efforts will have effects on the environment (the Environmental Protection Agency has said DOGE helped it make significant cuts, for instance), it’s urgent to uncover more details about how DOGE operates.
“FOIA was designed to ensure that monumental and consequential undertakings such as this could not take place without transparency. Yet that is what is occurring as Defendants are engaging in wholesale disregard for FOIA’s pro-disclosure mandate,” the lawsuit says.
“Given the substantial protections for air and water, wildlife and nature, climate, public lands, and the environment generally implemented through federal staff and regulations, the Center and its members are deeply interested in, and affected by, how the stated mission for DOGE and its related activities could harm, undermine, or negate the Center’s longstanding efforts to protect the environment and the livability of our planet,” it says.
Also Thursday, a judge ruled that four DOGE officials would have to testify under oath, answering questions about the group's activities and access to data.
The pair of legal happenings follow a meeting Wednesday in which some Republican lawmakers requested more transparency from DOGE in a conversation with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
“We think it’s going to be extremely successful,” Trump said of the new path to citizenship on Tuesday.
While Musk has touted his efforts to reshape the federal government as aiming for “maximum transparency,” DOGE itself has largely been shrouded in secrecy. Its staffers and efforts are generally not publicly named. Though DOGE was formally created by an executive order from President Donald Trump on his first day in office, Jan. 20, the White House only revealed the name of its acting administrator, Amy Gleason, on Tuesday, more than a month later.
In some cases, DOGE workers have reportedly communicated in ways that allow for easy records destruction, via the app Signal, which allows for messages to be automatically deleted after a certain time period.
On Jan. 12, The New York Times reported that much of the communications among DOGE staffers ahead of Trump’s inauguration occurred on Signal, citing people involved in the operation. And Vinay Hiremath wrote in a blog post that when he began working with DOGE he was “added to a number of Signal groups and immediately put to work.”
Lora Kolodny, CNBC contributed.
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