Elon Musk’s DOGE team is now starting to target government agencies outside of the executive branch, notifying the U.S. Government Accountability Office — the congressional watchdog that performs studies for legislators about federal waste, fraud and abuse — that it has “assigned a team” to assail that agency, according to an internal email obtained by NOTUS.
The GAO is pushing back, directly telling the White House cost-cutting project managers at DOGE that the agency is far outside President Donald Trump’s jurisdiction.
“GAO was contacted by representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who sought to assign a team to GAO. Today, we sent a letter to the acting administrator of DOGE stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for the Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or executive orders,” said an internal email sent to GAO employees at 12:42 p.m. on Friday.
The email goes on to say that GAO has “also notified relevant congressional committees and will keep them apprised of any further developments.”
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In a statement to NOTUS, Approations Committee Vice Chair Sen. Patty Murray said “the law is crystal clear: GAO is a legislative branch agency not subject to DOGE or the president’s whims. It is an indispensable, impartial government watchdog, and its independence must remain. My message to Elon and DOGE: get lost.”
Behind closed doors, GAO managers recently have tried to reassure employees that the agency will defend itself from bullying from the White House by turning away DOGE employees and security forces — noting that the agency already has its own security guards, according to one insider who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Shortly after the internal email went out, the GAO employee union followed up with a note meant to instill confidence in the agency’s workforce.
“We have full confidence that GAO leadership will protect and defend GAO’s independence, as the comptroller general and executive committee have made clear at prior town halls,” said the 1:45 p.m. email from IFPTE Local 1921, which thanked them for “their transparent approach and communication with our workforce.”
GAO, the largest legislative branch agency, has a workforce of over 3,500 employees nationwide across nearly a dozen offices and, since its creation in 1921, has been engaged in the same kind of work Trump has tasked DOGE with. The office’s analysts review the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs at the behest of members of Congress, then author nonpartisan reports suggesting improvements.
Their work fuels policy discussions on Capitol Hill. The agency’s most recent performance and accountability report, from fiscal year 2024, states that “GAO’s work yielded about $67.5 billion in financial benefits — a return of about $76 for every dollar invested in GAO.”
By contrast, DOGE has exaggerated its “cost saving” work by hundreds of millions of dollars. In a single day last month, it removed nearly $962 million in previously claimed cuts. Earlier this week, NOTUS reported Trump’s pet project with tech billionaire Musk vastly overstated its cuts to government real estate management, initially taking credit for eliminating $600 million in spending but later quietly dialing that back.
The move by DOGE to target the legislative branch agency echoes its aggressive takeover in mid-March of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally funded nonprofit whose research and policy analysis served to improve the nation’s interactions in worldwide conflicts. Although the nonprofit’s operations and funding lie outside of the executive branch, DOGE agents demanded entry into the institute’s headquarters and forcefully removed its employees. Nearly all workers there then received layoff notices.
DOGE’s targeting of GAO comes just days after congressional Democrats decried what they called its “inappropriate” potential targeting of yet another government entity clearly under the legislative branch’s control: The Library of Congress.
Earlier this week, Rep. Joe Morelle asked Library of Congress Inspector General Kimberly Benoit to investigate “the possibility of the unauthorized transfer of congressional or library data to executive branch agencies and personnel,” particularly to DOGE.
DOGE’s seizure of data at the Treasury Department has raised alarms and led to lawsuits questioning the new federal agency’s authority and reach.
DOGE’s staff, many of whom originated from Musk’s Silicon Valley startup circles, have claimed wide-ranging powers to insert themselves deep within federal agencies by citing the president’s Day 1 “cost efficiency initiative,” Executive Order 14158.
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Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.
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