Politicians, demands and a court order are pressing the efficiency department of the Government of Elon Musk so that they become more transparent.
On Thursday there was a lawsuit trying to force Doge to follow the transparency rules that apply to much of the government.
The demand, presented by the Center for Biological Diversity, a non -profit organization dedicated to the protection of endangered species, says that the Office of Management and Budget has not responded properly to the requests for information on Doge activities as ordered by the Law of Freedom of Information, which in general requires that federal records be public if requested.
Although Dege has been the subject of more than 20 demands, the case of the Center for Biological Diversity seems to be the first to specifically ask Doge to follow federal transparency laws. The OMB and Doge representatives did not respond to the emails that requested comments.
According to FOIA, anyone can request federal government records, with some exceptions, as if the information is classified. Since some agencies take months or even years to process a request, sometimes FOIA filingers also file a lawsuit to force the government to act.
The demand of the Center for Biological Diversity states that DeGe is deliberately moving to reduce the financing and government staff, and their efforts will have effects on the environment (the Environmental Protection Agency has said that Dege helped him make significant cuts, for example), it is urgent to discover more details about how Doge works.
“Foia was designed to ensure that monumental and consequent companies such as this could not take place without transparency. However, that is what is happening as the defendants are involved in wholesale contempt for the mandate in favor of the dissemination of Foia, ”says the demand.
“Given the substantial protections for air and water, wildlife and nature, climate, public lands and the environment generally implemented through federal personnel and regulations, the center and its members are deeply interested and affected by the mission declared for Dege and their related activities could damage, minimize or deny the efforts of the center of long data to protect the environment and housing of our planet. says.
Also on Thursday, a judge ruled that four Doge officials would have to testify under oath, answering questions about group activities and access to data.
The couple of legal events follow a meeting on Wednesday in which some Republican legislators requested more Dog transparency in a conversation with the White House Cabinet Chief, Susie Wiles.
While Musk has promoted his efforts to remodel the federal government to aim for “maximum transparency”, Dege itself has been secretly wrapped in secret. Your employees and efforts are generally not publicly appointed. Although Dege was formally created by an executive order of President Donald Trump on his first day in office, on January 20, the White House only revealed the name of its interim administrator, Amy Gleason, on Tuesday, more than a month later.
In some cases, Doge workers have communicated so that they allow easy record destruction, through the application signal, allowing messages to be removed automatically after a certain period of time.
On January 12, the New York Times reported that much of the communications between Dogs employees before the inauguration of Trump occurred on the signal, citing the people involved in the operation. And Vinay Hiremath wrote in a blog post that when he started working with Doge, he was “added to several groups of signals and could immediately work.”
