DOGE critics seek docs on use of AI

Politico

03-03-2025

QUICK FIX
FIRST IN SHIFT: A group that has emerged as one of the biggest thorns in the side of the Trump administration is submitting public records requests today to more than a half-dozen federal agencies seeking information about the use of artificial intelligence to make personnel decisions.
Democracy Forward's target list is unsurprising to anyone who has tracked the start of President Donald Trump's second term. It includes DOGE, USAID, the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, as well as the Departments of State, Treasury and Defense.
'DOGE and this administration are operating in a shroud of secrecy, and their 'govern by chaos' tactics have only made government less efficient and caused disruptions to our safety and security,' Skye Perryman, the organization's president, said in a statement.
The speed at which the Trump administration is implementing major policies — coupled with the opacity it is affording DOGE even as it makes mistakes and exaggerates purported cost savings — has frustrated members of Congress, flummoxed federal judges, and drawn outrage from good government groups. An environmental organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a FOIA lawsuit last week in a battle over DOGE records, per POLITICO's E&E News.
Democracy Forward said that the inquiry was prompted by the mass messages sent out to federal employees, several of which have been sent from OPM email addresses but appear to have originated with Elon Musk and his DOGE acolytes, and public reporting that the Trump administration may use AI tools such as large language models to sift through them.
Another batch of emails went out over the weekend asking federal workers to provide five bullet points of what they accomplished last week, as our Danny Nguyen and Holly Otterbein report. The first attempt at this was met with contradictory messages from different agency leaders but generated about a million responses, the White House said last Tuesday.
It would be rather inefficient — to put it mildly — to have people in the government parse through that mountain of information, raising suspicions that the format is designed with AI in mind.
'The American people deserve to know what is going on – including if and how artificial intelligence is being used to reshape the departments and agencies people rely on daily,' Perryman said.
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AROUND THE AGENCIES
OFFICE OF SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: A federal judge ruled Saturday that President Donald Trump's firing of a federal workforce watchdog was illegal — teeing up a Supreme Court showdown over the president's claim to nearly absolute control of the executive branch, our Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded that Hampton Dellinger — confirmed last year as head of the Office of Special Counsel — may continue to serve his five-year term despite Trump's effort to remove him from the post via email last month.
Jackson ruled that Dellinger's duties, which include holding executive branch officials accountable for ethics breaches and fielding whistleblower complaints, were meant to be independent from the president, making the position a rare exception to the president's generally vast domain over the executive branch.
Dellinger's 'independence is inextricably intertwined with the performance of his duties,' Jackson wrote in a 67-page opinion. 'The elimination of the restrictions on plaintiff's removal would be fatal to the defining and essential feature of the Office of Special Counsel as it was conceived by Congress and signed into law by the President: its independence. The Court concludes that they must stand.'
INDIRECT BLOW: Ray Limon, a Democratic appointee on the Merit Systems Protection Board, announced his retirement Friday as his term on the three-person panel expired, the agency announced.
With Limon gone, the board is down to Democratic Chair Cathy Harris and Republican Henry Kerner, though Trump fired Harris in mid-February and designated Kerner chair in her place. A federal judge quickly reinstated Harris on a temporary basis pending further litigation.
MSPB, typically a low-profile agency, hears appeals filed by federal workers challenging adverse employment actions that allegedly violate civil service rules. The board can still rule on cases without a third member, but it opens the door to partisan deadlocks that can leave cases unresolved for extended stretches — a dire prospect for the reams of rank-and-file employees put out of work by the Trump administration seeking to reverse their terminations.
And if Trump succeeds in court to oust Harris, the MSPB would be without a quorum until the White House nominates replacements and the Senate confirms them, stymying things even further.
CHOPS COME TO SSA: The Social Security Administration said Friday it intends to trim more than 10 percent of its headcount by cutting 7,000 employees from its roughly 57,000 workforce.
'The agency plans to reduce the size of its bloated workforce and organizational structure, with a significant focus on functions and employees who do not directly provide mission critical services,' the agency said in a release, adding that '[r]umor of a 50 percent reduction is false.'
It said it would also close six of its 10 regional offices, leaving four.
SSA in recent days has also said it would shutter its Office of Transformation, which is labeled 'wasteful,' and the 'duplicative' Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity. Staffers in both branches were put on administrative leave as a result.
— Related: 'Top Social Security deputies leave amid rumored staff cuts,' from The Government Executive.
More agency news: 'Trump Labor Department appeals ruling that blocked Biden overtime pay rule,' from Reuters.
On the Hill
BURROW CHECK: The head of the House Oversight Committee on Friday opened a probe into dozens of federal agencies to examine hirings that occurred late in the Biden administration, our Hailey Fuchs reports.
Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) sent letters to 24 departments and other agencies seeking details about all new employees who began between the start of 2024 and Jan. 20 of this year, when President Donald Trump was sworn in, as well as the names of all political appointees during the Biden administration who have remained in the executive branch.
'We are concerned about job postings and hiring surges not based on actual agency mission needs, but based on political goals, including a desire to 'Trump-proof' agency staffs by placing personnel opposed to President Donald Trump's agenda,' Comer wrote in separate letters to current leadership at the various executive branches.
Unions
The Office of Personnel Management last week instructed agencies to detail the amount of time that shop stewards or others employed by the federal government spent on union-related activities.
OPM's memo told agencies to respond by March 14 with the amount of on-the-clock time that was utilized for things like contract negotiation or grievance disputes, as well as other expenses like the use of government office space and information on what jobs within the government that union officials hold and their compensation.
The memo issued Thursday goes on to tell agencies to follow up by the start of April with a deeper accounting for the 2024 fiscal year that ran through Sept. 30.
Republicans have long looked at ways to reel in federal workers' organizing rights and criticized allowing union officials to tend to labor activities during government business hours as wasteful.
More union news: 'Teacher union head taking fight to Elon Musk through Tesla stock,' from The Hill.
In the Workplace
SPIES LIKE US: The Trump administration's buzzsaw to the federal workforce is creating a cohort of disgruntled former employees that countries like Russia and China are seeking to exploit for their own ends, CNN reports.
'At least two countries have already set up recruitment websites and begun aggressively targeting federal employees on LinkedIn, two of the sources said. …
A document produced by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said the intelligence community assessed with 'high confidence' that foreign adversaries were trying to recruit federal employees and 'capitalize' on the Trump administration's plans for mass layoffs, according to a partly redacted copy reviewed by CNN.'
More workplace news: 'Goldman Sachs Removes Diversity Goals After Trump DEI Order,' from Bloomberg.
Even more: 'Partnership for Public Service lays off dozens of staff,' from The Government Executive.
IMMIGRATION
COMING CIRCUS: The Democratic mayors of New York City, Boston, Chicago and Denver are set to testify Wednesday before the House about their 'sanctuary city' policies that limit their engagement with federal immigration enforcement authorities, our Hailey Fuchs, Shia Kapos, EMily Ngo and Kelly Garrity report.
Comer, the Oversight chair, last week sat down to discuss immigration policy with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of some of Trump's most aggressive efforts to curb illegal immigration, according to a person granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.
Part of the goal is to emulate the dramatic moments from last year's college antisemitism hearings, which contributed to the ouster of multiple Ivy League presidents.
More immigration news: 'Canada Curbed Illegal Migration to the U.S. Now People Are Heading to Canada,' from The New York Times.
WHAT WE'RE READING
— 'General Services Administration cuts tech unit,' from our Danny Nguyen.
— 'In the federal court system, law clerks find little recourse for bullying and abuse,' from NPR.
— 'Sean Penn Eyes Trump's Government Overhaul to Escape Labor Case,' from Bloomberg Law.
— 'Trump's media company defends its 'diversity and inclusion' policies as his administration dismantles DEI,' from CNN.
THAT'S YOUR SHIFT!