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While Elon Musk and his agreement are asking for budget discounts and hairstyles throughout the federal government, its agency – the Ministry of Governmental efficiency – has increased to nearly 40 million dollars, Propublica was found in reviewing the office of administrative and budget records.
The investor described the billionaire Mosk Dog as “maximum transparent”. President Donald Trump said about 100 people working in the group, but his administration refused to provide information about Dog’s spending and operations. In an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of Duji Interior, by ProPublica I collected the names and backgrounds of the people working there. We have identified about 46 people, including 12 new names that we add to the list today.
Trump defended Doug as a tool to reduce fats from what they see as large and enlarged democracy. The effects of these cuts proved to paralyze, which led to a stop Programs that have provided basic services to the weak population Throughout the country and the world.
The best Democrat at the Parliament’s credits committee, Representative Rosa Deloro, Delon, told ProPublica that she did not believe that Dog has the legal authority of the measures she has taken. She described it as a “makeup ministry” that wasts taxpayers dollars.
“This illegal effort is to steal federal funds from American families and companies,” Deloro said.
Most of Dog’s money, as records appear, came in the form of payments from other federal agencies that have become possible under a law near a century called the Economy Law. To direct these funds to the new administration, the Trump administration dealt with Duji as if it were a federal agency. By sending members of their employees to other agencies and making these employees issue decrees on politics and employees, Doug acted as if she had authority at the agency level.
The use of the Economy Law appears to be subject to the same open record laws that cover most of the federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, Dog refused to respond to the requests of the Freedom of Information Law, saying It works with executive privileges. Musk also fluctuated if DOGE staff were pushed. Initially he said they were not, but earlier this week he said some of them were.
Legal experts say that conflicting situations put the Trump administration in childbirth. If Dog is a federal agency, she cannot protect her records from the public. If it is not an agency, dozens of millions of dollars in financing have not been legally allocated and must be returned, and some claim.
Adam Groug, the former deputy general adviser at OMB and now the legal director Judgment to influenceThe center -left research tank. “Either it is an agency covered by FOIA with the authority to do what it does, or it advises the president purely and cannot direct agencies the way it is now.”
A federal judge headed by one of the lawsuits of DOGE recently in the administration’s lawyers for its conflicting positions. In a recent hearing, American boycott judge John Bings Premium The government’s position as “we are not an agency we do not want to be an agency, but we are the agency of this case as we want to be.”
PROPUBLICA confirmed the names of 12 additional government employees who are either part of DOGE or are linked to the constellation of companies in Musk and have roles in the new administration. We have confirmed the names of the registration of the mutual reference agency, speaking with dozens of sources within the federal government, and toured through documents of continuous litigation that challenge the authority of Dog.
Spread through agencies. In the Ministry of Education, DOGE employees explore how this Expanding the agency’s dependence on artificial intelligence To identify potential waste and interact with student loan recipients. At the Environmental Protection Agency, they are said to have been able to access the contracting databases. Some employees serve roles at the executive level while others have mysterious titles, such as the “Great Chancellor”, which leaves the nature of their work unclear.
One of the newly -added names to the follower, Catherine Armstrong Loew, is Bian Armstrong’s CEO, who runs the leader of the industry. Coinbase donated a million dollars to the Trump opening fund, and Armstrong met with Trump To discuss appointments in management jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Some employees work in more than one agency. Nothing responded to the requests for comment.
MUSK celebrated the Doug discounts and targeted targeted agencies, Trump officials now say it is Do not manage it already.
The White House did not respond to suspension requests.
Gates financing
The Trump administration began financing Doug shortly after taking office. It started taking advantage of $ 750,000 from the White House Fund for Information Technology Initiatives in late January.
Since then, funding has been swollen. The latest distribution came on February 8 and included a piece worth 14 million dollars described as part of the “software update initiative”. Propublica found that more than $ 39 million was allocated to the first month of the Trump administration.
For the perspective, in recent years, Congress has allocated about $ 50 million annually to the Initiative to update the IT that Duji had, according to budget records.
The Trump administration has not yet released sufficient details to track the careful source of financing that flows into Doug or who is paid. Money can come from the agency’s budgets that have funds for information technology or other services. Also, he has not yet clarified the time frame covered by the allocation or whether he has funding salaries.
Experts say the financing of an agency from another budget is not unusual. But it is not possible to transfer money for any purpose that the White House wants – it is restricted to something called the “basic system”, which requires money to pay the elements that Congress described specifically.
Christie Wintworth, an ethics citizens of responsibility and ethics in Washington, said the way to run Dog “leaves questions about the possible violations of the statute of purpose.” “If Dog is only using money available for information technology related purposes for the initiatives that have nothing to do with it, then this use can violate federal law.”
Brett Murphyfor Kirsten Bergfor Pratik Ribala and Annie and Daman The reports contributed.