Elon Musk’s DOGE Will Reportedly Be Sued the Minute Trump Takes the Oath of Office
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Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” will face a legal challenge on Monday immediately after Donald Trump is sworn in as president and the panel is set to begin its cost-cutting mission, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reported that the “public interest law firm National Security Counselors says that the nongovernmental DOGE panel is breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the executive branch to follow certain rules on disclosure, hiring and other practices.” The firm has readied a 30-page lawsuit against DOGE, which was reviewed by the Post.
DOGE’s legal standing has been publicity scrutinized since Trump announced Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the panel after he won the November election.
In early December, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told CNN she believed DOGE to be both “unconstitutional and illegal.”
“It’s illegal,” Lofgren further explained, arguing, “You know, they haven’t asked to meet with me, but the impoundment of funds that have been appropriated by the Congress is unconstitutional and illegal. There is no such Department of Government Efficiency. It’s made up. So good luck to ’em.”
Lofgren added that any “plan” to cut spending from a president should be given to Congress in the form of a budget. “He should send it to us, but the Constitution does not permit the president to simply avoid what the Congress has done — that power of the purse is with the legislative branch, not the president,” she added.
The National Security Counselors’ lawsuit, however, focuses more on the make-up of DOGE. The Post dug into the details of the lawsuit, reporting:
The lawsuit alleges that DOGE meets the requirements to be considered a “federal advisory committee,” a class of legal entity regulated to ensure the government receives transparent and balanced advice. These groups, known as FACAs, are required by law to have “fairly balanced” representation, keep regular minutes of meetings, allow the public to attend, file a charter with Congress and more — all steps that DOGE does not appear to have taken.
The Post adds that regulations surrounding federal advisory committees have “ proven controversial at times” to enforce, citing a 1993 challenge against then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s healthcare reform effort. The courts sided with Hillary Clinton at the time, finding that she was a government official and therefore exempt from FACA rules.
