DOGE staffers offer group resignation in order to not ‘legitimise’ Musk

In the most recent tussle between President Donald Trump’s administration, a group of civil service employees in the United States announced their resignation from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

A joint letter from the 21 DOGE employees to the CEO was also obtained by media outlets, including The Associated Press.

They accused DOGE of carrying out ideological attacks and compromising the integrity of government systems in a statement released on Tuesday.

The employees wrote, “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution in all of our posts.” “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments”.

Engineers, data scientists, and product managers, all of whom were previously employed by renowned technology companies like Google and Amazon, made up the resignations.

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardise Americans ‘ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services”, they explained. We won’t use our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s deeds.

Turmoil at DOGE

The resignations are the latest fallout from Trump’s scorched-earth approach to downsizing and reshaping the federal workforce.

Elon Musk, a billionaire, was appointed to lead DOGE, a new panel whose mandate was unclear, shortly after winning a second term in November.

At first, it was not clear how DOGE would function: whether it would exist outside of government or within it, for example. Additionally, critics made mention of the existence of independent oversight bodies to ensure efficiency of the government.

However, Trump signed an executive order to transform the existing US Digital Service into DOGE on his first day in office.

To overcome technical obstacles, the Digital Service was established in 2014. Its formation had been prompted by the White House’s struggles to launch a medical insurance portal for Americans, as part of then-President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms.

Before it changed to DOGE, the Digital Service’s employees who resigned on Tuesday were already there.

They cautioned employees about the presence of White House visitors who had questioned them about their political inclinations and work history.

Additionally, they denounced the DOGE staff’s recent layoffs. Earlier this month, about 40 staffers in the office were laid off — a drastic cut, according to Tuesday’s resignation letter.

The letter-writers warned that such sudden, steep declines in the workforce would undermine the White House’s ability to handle technology-based projects.

“These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans ‘ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services”, the resignation letter states.

“Millions of Americans who rely on these services every day are in danger of losing.” Critical systems and American data are less secure as a result of their sudden loss of technology expertise.

After the February layoffs, only about 65 of the company’s employees remained in the company, with the majority assigned to take part in the government downsizing initiative that DOGE has overseen.

On Tuesday, a third of that group’s remaining members resigned.

A broader backlash

The federal government is the US’s largest employer, with responsibilities ranging from national security to intelligence gathering, healthcare, and education.

More than two million federal employees are employed in some capacity, and thousands more, including those in fields like agriculture and technology, are dependent on government contracts.

But upon taking office, Trump has moved swiftly to slash the employee base, which he has accused of harbouring “Biden bureaucrats”, a reference to his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

Many civil service members, however, are nonpartisan and help ensure the smooth functioning of the government across different administrations.

Additionally, Trump and Musk have attempted to shut down entire organizations, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was established by a bill of Congress. That has, in turn, queued up a legal battle over the powers of the presidency.

Unions, states, and individual employees have filed legal challenges as a result of the mass layoffs and buyout offers, alleging that their rights are being violated.

Experts have warned that the approach of Musk and Trump could have potentially disastrous consequences for individual citizens, who could see data mismatches affect everything from Social Security payments to potential privacy breaches.

Cordell Schachter, who was the US Department of Transportation’s chief information officer up until last month, said, “Move fast and break things” may be acceptable to someone who owns a business and owns the risk.

“But when you break things in government, you’re breaking things that belong to people who didn’t sign up for that”.

Within the Trump White House and even between Musk himself, fractures have already begun to form.

Federal employees had until Monday to respond to an email with a five-point list describing their work over the past week, according to Musk’s announcement on his social media platform X on Saturday. Failure to comply, he warned, would be understood as a resignation.

The reaction was swift, though, with politicians and labor unions calling the action unlawful.

Some government departments even instructed their employees to ignore Musk’s demand. The Office of Personnel Management had made a promise to all departments and organizations by Monday that they could disregard the request without worrying about their jobs.

Some Republican lawmakers have also openly questioned Musk’s slash-and-burn approach.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for instance, has criticised Musk’s firings as irresponsible and disrespectful to long-time government employees.

“This is not how we treat any of our workforce. It’s not how we treat our federal employees. They deserve better”, she said at a town hall event last week. You don’t treat people who have served well as public servants in this manner.

Murkowski also slammed Musk’s request for an emailed summary of federal workers ‘ achievements.

In a post on&nbsp, X, she wrote that “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they do. The ridiculous weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.

Musk, however, showed a double standard on his threats to follow on Monday.

Source: Aljazeera