FOOGLE: DOGE Doesn’t Embed in an Executive Branch, Yet the U.S. Government Accountability Office Has A Strong Mission to Expand Government Efficiency

The Department of Government Efficiency is continuing its attempts to expand its reach beyond executive branch agencies, this time seeking to embed in an independent legislative watchdog that finds waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office found out on Friday that they are not subject to presidential executive orders, which is why they turned down the request.

A GAO spokesman affirmed that GAO is not subject to Executive Orders and therefore has declined any requests to have a DOGE team assigned to GAO.

In an announcement to employees posted Friday afternoon, GAO leadership said they sent a letter to Acting Administrator of DOGE Amy Gleason and notified members of Congress, according to a copy of the notice shared with NPR by an employee not authorized to speak publicly.

A May 13 review of federal programs with fragmented, overlapping, and duplicative actions it says could save $100 billion in spending is one of the ways the GAO highlights ways to improve government efficiency. But there’s been little overlap between GAO’s work and DOGE’s actions so far.

Dogs have sought to get staffers at organizations outside of the executive branch. Several privately incorporated nonprofits created by Congress, but not considered government agencies, as well as at least one that was established with no relationship to congress, have been in contact with DOGE representatives in recent weeks.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was challenged by Trump’s move to fire three board members, and DOGE attempted to assign a team to review its operations the day after.

The notes shared with NPR show that on a call with the Vera Institute leadership, a DOGE representative said their outreach was about questioning every institute or agency that has Congressional funding.

After Vera staff told the DOGE representative that the Department of Justice had terminated the organization’s grants, he said his request to embed into Vera was “void.”

Doge’s efforts to integrate at GAO have increased tensions between Congress and the executive branch. The Librarian of Congress had been fired by the President before her term was over, raising concern among members of Congress.

Have information or evidence to share about DOGE’s access to data inside the federal government? Reach out to the authors with Tunneled Communications. Stephen Fowler is available on Signal at stphnfwlr.25. You can find them at jennamclaughlin.54. Please use a nonwork device.

After NPR reported on the whistle blower disclosure and allegations, the agency revealed two staffers to work part time for several months.

Bearese denied that the agency granted access to its systems and denied that DOGE had requested access to the agency’s systems. Bearese said the agency investigated after Berulis raised his concerns, and they determined there was no violation of agency systems.

“These revelations, as well as many others, are highly concerning for a number of reasons,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “If true, these revelations describe a reckless approach to the handling of sensitive personal information of workers, which could leave these workers exposed to retaliation for engaging in legally protected union activity.”

The OIG’s inquiry comes after the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wrote to the acting Inspector General at the Department of Labor Luiz Santos and Ruth Blevins, inspector general at the NLRB, expressing concern that DOGE “may be engaged in technological malfeasance and illegal activity.”

The Oversight Committee Democrats confirmed in a statement to NPR that there was an NLRB OIG investigation related to the Committee’s concerns.

The investigation was first reported by FedScoop, which had records requests for information related to the allegations made by IT staffer Daniel Berulis.

The inspector general for the National Labor Relations Board is probing the interaction of the Department of Government Efficiency with the board, following the reporting by NPR of sensitive data leaving the agency.