President Donald Trump’s reference to Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative during his Tuesday night address to Congress sparked a court filing from a group seeking more information about “the nature” of the project.
In a statement last month to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the White House said that Musk “is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator” and “has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors.” That statement was in response to a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic attorneys general who sought to stop the work of DOGE.
On Tuesday night before Congress, Trump touted the work of DOGE, saying, “To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.”
The nonprofit group National Security Counselors (NSC) immediately cited Trump’s comments as “new evidence” before Judge Jia M. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. An NSC court filing on Tuesday night stated that Trump’s remark “conclusively demonstrates that expedited discovery is urgently needed to ascertain the nature of the Department of Government Efficiency and its relationship to the United States DOGE Service, of which Amy Gleason is the Acting Administrator.”
NSC argues that there is confusion within the federal government about the role and power of DOGE and that DOGE is a federal advisory committee under law, Newsweek reported. If DOGE is a federal advisory committee, it must meet legal requirements, such as holding public meetings and keeping a balanced membership, according to NSC’s lawyer, Jerald Lentini.
After the White House stated that Musk was not working as the DOGE administrator, it was revealed that the administrator was Amy Gleason, a Tennessee-based healthcare executive who worked for the Trump and Biden administrations. From 2018 to 2021, Gleason worked for the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which became DOGE.
Trump focused much of his time during his address to Congress touting DOGE’s success. The president highlighted “appalling waste,” such as the “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody’s ever heard of.”
“Sixty million dollars for indigenous people and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Eight million dollars to make mice transgender. This is real,” he added.
Trump signed an executive order last week giving DOGE more power and requiring “each agency head to work directly with the DOGE team to identify where government contracts and grants can be terminated or modified.”
