The Independent Agencies
| Date | Short | Agency | DOGE Staff |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/20 | USADF |
U.S. African Development Foundation | Jacob Altik, Nate Cavanaugh, Peter Marocco, Ethan Shaotran |
| 2/28 | IAF |
Inter-American Foundation | Nate Cavanaugh, Peter Marocco, Ethan Shaotran |
| c.3/01 | Global Media |
US Agency for Global Media | Gavin Kliger, Tarak Makecha |
| 3/04 | USIP |
US Institute of Peace | Nate Cavanaugh, Kenneth Jackson |
| c.3/13 | NEH |
National Endowment for the Humanities | Nate Cavanaugh, Justin Fox |
| 3/20 | IMLS |
Institute for Museum and Library Services | Nate Cavanaugh, Gavin Hamrick, Keith Sonderling |
| 3/22 | MCC |
Millennium Challenge Corporation | Nate Cavanaugh, Justin Fox |
| c.3/28 | FTC |
Federal Trade Commission | Emily Bryant, Gavin Kliger |
| 3/31 | Wilson Ctr. |
Woodrow Wilson Intl. Center for Scholars | Justin Fox |
| c.4/17 | MBDA |
Minority Business Development Agency | Nate Cavanaugh, Keith Sonderling |
| 4/04 | FCC |
Federal Communications Commission | Jacob Altik, Tarak Makecha, Jordan Wick |
| 4/04 | Peace Corps |
Peace Corps | Bridget Youngs |
| c.4/05 | SEC |
Securities and Exchange Commission | Jonathan Mendelson, Eliezer Mishory |
| 4/10 | FDIC |
Federal Deposit Insurance Commission | Anthony Armstrong, Brooks Morgan, Adam Ramada |
| 4/14 | NSF |
National Science Foundation | Luke Farritor, Rachel Riley, Zach Terrell |
| 4/28 | DFC |
US International Development Finance Corporation | Nate Cavanaugh, Jonathan Mendelson, Ethan Shaotran, Marshall Wood |
| 5/14 | EXIM |
Export-Import Bank of the United States | Nate Cavanaugh, Donald Park |
| 5/21 | MSPB |
Merit System Protection Board | Nate Cavanaugh |
| 7/11 | NRC |
Nuclear Regulatory Commission | Adam Blake |
Over the past decade, Congress has established multiple independent agencies that are supposed to be insulated from interference from the Executive Branch in how they operate. Many of these are small and specialized and relatively unknown to the general public. That hasn’t stopped DOGE from interfering with them, in a coordinated effort with the White House that usually included the following steps:
- President Trump will issue an executive order targeting one or more independent agencies by name (e.g., this executive order that targeted the USIP, USADF and IAF). This is meant to provide the legal cover.
- A DOGE team (usually led by Nate Cavanaugh) then makes contact with the agency, usually under the usual pretenses of “IT modernization” and convinces/threatens them to sign an MOU detailing DOGE to the agency
- If the agency is governed by a board of directors, White House lawyer Trent Morse will email enough of the board to eliminate quorum with a message telling them that their employment has been terminated by the President. If the board has a partisan split, these will always be the Democratic-appointed members first. The goal is to either render the board inert or make it a puppet for whatever DOGE wants
- Once inside, DOGE will often move quickly to seize control of the agency’s financial systems and emails. Staff are immediately placed on indefinite administrative leave to prevent them from acting against them or monitoring what happens. DOGE will then send emails to terminate a large portion of grants with the justification that they no longer “effectuate administration priorities”
- DOGE will then proceed with plan to conduct a massive layoff (known as a Reduction in Force or RIF in government terminology) to reduce the agency to the bare minimum of staff needed to meet its “statutory requirements.” Much like obscenity, this is a seemingly precise definition that is remarkably arbitrary and in some cases, DOGE have used this justification to reduce an agency to a single person. Thus far, these arguments have not prevailed in court, but DOGE is hoping for a lucky break on this in a higher appeals court or the Supreme Court. Regardless, the agency is left functionally inert and unable to fulfill any of its duties towards the American public.
DOGE honed its moves against independent agencies by first attacking USAID and CFPB, and details on those can be found on their respective pages. This page is going to look at a flurry of individual incidents against each agency.
Phases of Attack
2/19: “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy”
The pattern of assaulting independent agencies began with an Executive Order “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” issued on 2025-02-19 that mandated that “The non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” for the Presidio Trust, Inter-American Foundation, United States African Development Foundation and US Institute of Peace. This was followed by DOGE taking over the various agencies.
It started with the US African Development Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. Both are small independent agencies established by Congress to invest in projects in the developing world. Thanks to litigation, we have some visibility into how events unfolded.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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2/19
|
||
|
2/19
|
Official:
Trump issues EO 14217, which explicitly targets the Presidio Trust, the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace for reductions.
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2/20
|
Sighting:
IAF President Sara Aviel learns that DOGE will be visiting her agency. That afternoon, she meets Nate Cavanaugh and Ethan Shaotran who both introduce themselves as GSA employees. They showed little interest in a discussion on efficiency initiatives at the agency and stated they just wanted access to systems.
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2/20
|
Sighting:
Chris Young meets with USADF leadership at their HQ to “introduce DOGE to the agency” and informs them that 2 engineers would be assigned to the agency.
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2/21
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2/21
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Sighting:
Ethan Shaotran, Jacob Altik, and Nate Cavanaugh arrive at the agency and demand that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be signed for their detail assignment.
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2/21
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||
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2/21
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Access:
Nate Cavanaugh and Jacob Altik then demanded immediate access to USADF systems including financial records and payment and human resources systems. They were told they had to go through standard clearance process.
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2/21
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Disruption:
Jacob Altik demands waivers to exempt DOGE staff from background checks. He also threatens to fire the USADF board if DOGE’s demands are not met.
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2/21
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||
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2/21
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Interagency:
Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh return to the IAF with Jacob Altik, who presented himself as representing the EOP. Altik confirms that DOGE plans to reduce IAF to what he considers the statutory minimum (a board and president, a location in DC, some grants) and DOGE will be conducting a Reduction in Force of all employees and terminating all grants. The demand approval from the board and threaten the board will be fired otherwise.
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2/24
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2/24
|
Disruption:
The IAF President Sara Aviel joins a call with Nate Cavanaugh and Jacob Altik, who claim that all but one of the board members have been terminated. They demand that Aviel approves DOGE’s plan for the agency – which she declines to do – and that she sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) assigning a DOGE member to the agency and granting them access to systems. After the call, she confirms that no board members had received a termination notice.
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2/24
|
Disruption:
USADF President/CEO Ward Brehm receives an email from White House Deputy Director of Personnel Trent Morse notifying him that he is now removed from tbe board.
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2/26
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||
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2/26
|
Disruption:
Sara Aviel receives an email from White House Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse informing her that President Trump has now terminated her position.
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2/28
|
Disruption:
White House Deputy Trent Morse sends an email to the office director at the IAF which states that Peter Marocco has been appointed the acting Chairman for the agency.
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2/28
|
Disruption:
Peter Marocco convenes an emergency board meeting (where the emergency is that Trump issued an executive order), asserting that means he can avoid the mandatory 1-week notification to the board of the agency. In attendance at the meeting are Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh. This is where he declares himself the new President and Acting CIO of the IAF.
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2/28
|
Disruption:
USADF Managing Director of Finance Mathieu Zahui receives an email from White House Deputy Director of Personnel Trent Morse informing him the USADF is now “boardless” and naming Peter Marocco as acting chair. Zahui informs them that the appointment would require senate confirmation first.
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3/03
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||
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3/04
|
Disruption:
Peter Marocco announces himself to staff at IAF as President/CEO. He then begins immediately dismantling all contracts and places all staff on administrative leave for 30 days to prevent them from interfering or monitoring DOGE’s actions at the agency.
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3/04
|
Disruption:
DOGE brags on its X account that the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) has been reduced to a single employee.
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3/04
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||
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3/04
|
Disruption:
Peter Marocco sends emails to all grantees terminating all of IAF’s existing grants except for a single one that was almost completely disbursed by that point.
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3/04
|
Disruption:
USADF CFO Mathieu Zahui receives an email from Nate Cavanaugh informing him that Peter Marocco would be coming to the office the following day in his declared capacity as Chairman of the Board.
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c.3/05
|
Disruption:
Peter Marocco names the remaining single employee not on admininstrative leave at the agency, the Chief Information Security Officer, as the new President of the Inter-American Foundation.
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3/05
|
Disruption:
Nate Cavanaugh sends Ward Brehm an email demanding to know by what authority he is the President/CFO of USADF.
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3/05
|
Disruption:
Jacob Altik and Ethan Shaotran are rebuffed by agency leadership when attempting to enter the agency headquarters.
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3/06
|
Disruption:
DOGE staff Jacob Altik and Ethan Shaotran return to the agency joined by Nate Cavanaugh and US marshals to force their way into the agency.
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3/10
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Onboard:
The Trump Administration nominates Kenneth Jackson and Russell Vought to be on the board of the IAF.
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3/10
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Onboard:
The Trump administration nominates Laken Rapier and Russell Vought to be on the board of the USADF.
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4/04
|
||
|
4/04
|
Legal:
Sara Aviel discovers that a team@iaf.gov created for the use of Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh had deactivated the admin access for the remaining IAF employee the day before Aviel’s return by orders of a court as President of the agency.
|
The next target outlined in the executive order was the US Institute of Peace. Thanks to testimony entered in the lawsuit of United States Institute of Peace v. Jackson (D.D.C.), we have a remarkably detailed timeline for the DOGE assault on the US Institute of Peace:
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
2/19
|
Official:
Trump issues EO 14217, which explicitly targets the Presidio Trust, the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace for reductions.
|
|
|
2/24
|
Interagency:
USIP leadership meets with DOGE staffers James Burnham, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh to explain the history and legal status of the small independent executive branch agency and why it should not need to respond to DOGE’s demands
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|
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2/24
|
||
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3/05
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||
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3/08
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||
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3/09
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||
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3/14
|
||
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3/14
|
Disruption:
DOGE members Kenneth Jackson, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh show up at USIP building with 2 other people who claim to be FBI agents. They are refused entry. The DOGE delegation attempts to present a document firing the USIP president.
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3/16
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3/16
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3/16
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||
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3/16
|
Disruption:
At 6pm, all Inter-Con staff are removed from the building, all keycard access is revoked and all physical keys accounted for except for a single one held by the Inter-Con account manager for USIP
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3/17
|
Disruption:
At 2:30pm, the Inter-Con account manager and employees attempt to enter the building with key cards and are denied. They then use the single physical key still in their possession to enter the building.
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3/17
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||
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3/17
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||
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3/17
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||
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3/17
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||
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3/17
|
Disruption:
DOGE members Kenneth Jackson, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh remove staff and president of the USIP with the help of Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the FBI and D.C. police
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3/17
|
||
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3/19
|
Disruption:
DOGE-affiliated staff start removing interior signage from the USIP building.
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3/19
|
Legal:
Judge Beryl Howell presides over an emergency hearing, but doesn’t grant USIP a temporary restraining order against DOGE’s takeover of the agency.
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3/20
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||
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3/25
|
Interagency:
Nate Cavanaugh contacts the administrator of the GSA to propose transferring the USIP building to them, arguing that USIP won’t need a building because the statute doesn’t mandate it should have one or the staffing to fill it.
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3/28
|
Disruption:
Almost all USIP HQ staff (200-300 people) receive termination notices sent late on a Friday night.
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4/01
|
Disruption:
The Defendants in the USIP lawsuit learn that GSA will be leasing the building to the Department of Labor. This is after Nate Cavanaugh transferred its ownership to the GSA.
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5/19
|
Legal:
The judge presiding over the USIP’s lawsuit against the Trump administration rules that the firing of the agency’s board was illegal, rendering all subsequent actions taken by Nate Cavanaugh as President null and void.
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5/21
|
Official:
The US Institute of Peace reatakes control of its headquarters and leadership re-enters the premises for the first time since being escorted out in DOGE’s takeover.
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5/21
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||
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6/27
|
Legal:
A federal appeals court issues a stay on a lower-court ruling that blocked DOGE from taking over the USIP. In their ruling, the appeals panel noted that President Trump would face “irreparable harm from not being able to fully exercise his executive powers,” should the injunction be allowed to stand. This restores Nate Cavanaugh as President of the USIP.
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7/12
|
||
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7/21
|
Report:
The head of security for the US Institute of Peace sits for an interview discussing how he was betrayed by the security contractor for the agency and taking back custody of the building after the May 21st court ruling.
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3/14: “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy”
In another executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy”, the Trump administration amplified the tactics of the first order, both by widening the number of agencies being examined and reducing the timeframes for their compliance. This order targeted the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Agency for Global Media (aka Voice of America), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; and the Minority Business Development Agency.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
c.3/01
|
||
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3/14
|
Official:
Trump issues a new executive order EO 14238 targeting the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Agency for Global Media (parent of VOA, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency for reduction actions by DOGE.
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3/15
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||
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3/15
|
Disruption:
In response to Trump’s executive order targeting independent agencies, Trump’s senior advisor at the agency, Kari Lake, sends out termination notices for all grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. It is unclear if she has the authority to issue such terminations.
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3/19
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||
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3/20
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||
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3/20
|
Official:
After being sworn in as the acting director of the IMLS, Keith Sonderling issues a statement that he “will revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country’s core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations.”
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3/31
|
Disruption:
DOGE wrecker Nate Cavanaugh returns to the IMLS and notifies the entire staff of the agency that they are being put on administrative leave up to 90 days effective immediately.
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3/31
|
Access:
DOGE gains admin access to IMLS systems for monitoring its grants and sending emails. The person is not named, but this is likely Nate Cavanaugh.
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3/31
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||
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3/31
|
Sighting:
DOGE staff reportedly visit the Wilson Center for Scholars headquarters. In other reporting, the New York Times had identified Justin Fox as part of this delegation.
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4/01
|
Disruption:
Mark Green, a Republican who once worked for Trump, is forced out as the head of the Wilson Center. Several members of the board were also reportedly fired earlier.
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4/02
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4/09
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||
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4/09
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||
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c.4/09
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||
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4/17
|
Disruption:
According to a sworn declaration by an employee of MBDA, Nate Cavanaugh sends emails terminating MBDA grants under the authority of Keith Sonderling, who is the acting undersecretary of the MBDA
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|
4/30
|
Oversight:
Democratic members of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation send a letter to Keith Sonderling requesting details on his appointment as acting undersecretary of the MBDA and other information about DOGE’s takeover and destruction of the agency.
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5/02
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5/13
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5/15
|
Disruption:
The US Agency for Global Media starts sending termination notices to contractors, some of whom are on J1 visas and would be forced to leave the country within 30 days.
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6/06
|
Disruption:
Analysis by a USAGM grantee based on public data reveals that China has expanded its own propaganda and programming to counter the void left by the closure of Radio Free Asia.
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6/14
|
Report:
Surprised by Israel’s strikes on Iran and unable to counter Iranian programming, the Voice of America orders all of its Farsi-speaking members in the Voice of America’s Persian wing immediately back to work. All of them had been on enforced administrative leave for several months.
|
From there, it’s just been open season on every independent agency from DOGE. Here are the attacks grouped by agency types.
Targeting the Arts
The arts have been a natural target for DOGE, which shares the Trump Administration’s disdain for supporting the arts, unless it’s the creation of statues for a garden of American heroes. To be clear, there have been many assaults on arts organizations outside of DOGE’s involvement - just recently, Trump has attempted to oust the head of the National Portrait Gallery for instance - but there have been a few organizations that have seen DOGE target them specifically:
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
1/29
|
Disruption:
The Smithsonian Institution announces it is closing a diversity office and freezing all federal hiring. It is not a federal agency, but most of its funding comes from Congressional appropriaions and two-thirds of its staff are federal workers.
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3/12
|
Disruption:
Shelly C. Lowe, the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is forced out of her position by President Trump.
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3/12
|
Disruption:
Immediately after the removal of the agency’s chair by the Trump administration, DOGE staffers Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox contact NEH IT for access to key systems.
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4/01
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||
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4/02
|
Disruption:
Approximately 1500 grantees receive grant cancellation emails sent from a nonstandard email address and bypassing the normal grant review process. The domain for the email address Grant_Notifications@nehemail.onmicrosoft.com suggests it was sent from a global admin account for Microsoft Entra, an access-control system used at the agency. The Acting Director of the NEH seems unaware of the messages. The content of the message cites an incorrect executive order as its justification, suggesting it was copied from an earlier email that was sent to IAF and USADF grantees after their DOGE takeover.
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4/03
|
Disruption:
145 NEH staff members (approximately 80% of workforce) are abruptly placed on administrative leave and locked out of system access. The remaining employees are pressured by Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox to formally conduct a Reduction-in-Force (RIF) as quickly as possible
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4/10
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||
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4/11
|
Disruption:
Luke Farritor uses his admin access to lock out all government officials at multiple agencies from using grants.gov to issue new grants. Instead, all grants must now be sent to a new email address which will be reviewed by DOGE staffers before grants can be posted.
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4/17
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||
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4/18
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Sighting:
DOGE staff reportedly meet with the leaders of the Smithsonian’s National Gallery of Art to discuss its legal status and funding. The National Gallery of Art is not an executive agency.
(fuzz: DOGE representatives not named)
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4/23
|
Sighting:
After an initial video call, DOGE representatives arrive at the agency offices of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
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4/24
|
Disruption:
NEH posts a public solicitation of up to $17 million in grants total for statues in a “National Garden of American Heroes.” Such grants would normally be made by the NEA, which is also offering similar separate grants for this project. This is also unusual, in that most NEH grants are dispersed broadly across many projects and are rarely for more than $500,000.
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4/28
|
Disruption:
Three members of the board for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receive an email from Trent Morse at the White House informing them that they have been fired. This renders the board inert without quorum.
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4/29
|
Interagency:
Nate Cavanaugh sends an email to the two remaining members of the CPB board requesting a meeting. He describes a DOGE team at GSA and cc’s several other members of DOGE
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|
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4/29
|
Legal:
Citing as evidence the harm inflicted by DOGE against the USIP, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives a temporary restraining order from a judge until its case can be heard in May.
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5/01
|
Official:
Trump issues an executive order commanding that Corporation for Public Broadcasting should cease any financial support for PBS and NPR, despite CPB being an independent agency.
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5/02
|
||
|
6/26
|
Official:
In an email to agency partners, the operators of grants.gov declare that the revised mechanism added in April that routed all Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) through a DOGE email address has been reversed. Instead, agencies are to return to using the tool like that did previously. This doesn’t necessarily mean that DOGE or political appointees will not be reviewing grants, but they have no longer locked other users out of the system.
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7/17
|
Disruption:
Congress passess a $9 billion recissions package that codifies DOGE cuts to foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, despite concerns from Democrats and two Senate Republicans that its cuts are purposefully vague and undermine Congress’ role in the budget process.
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Finance and Regulations
DOGE has also attempted to target several financial and trade regulatory agencies
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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3/28
|
||
|
4/04
|
Sighting:
Axios reports that Gavin Kliger and Emily Bryant have started work at the FTC, looking at grants and contracts at the agency.
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4/10
|
Sighting:
Brooks Morgan, Adam Ramada and Anthony Armstrong visit the FDIC headquarters. Their arrival is later confirmed for staff with an email stating they have not been granted access to any sensitive bank information.
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4/10
|
Disruption:
A leaked OMB budget proposal memorandum propose major changes to the discretionary budget for the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, it includes cutting that budget by a third and also consolidating various health and safety-related agencies into a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) overseen by the HHS Secretary.
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4/15
|
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4/30
|
||
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5/08
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||
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5/08
|
||
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5/09
|
Sighting:
With the board now fired, DOGE staff are granted access to the Consumer Product Safety Commission headquarters and onboarded into the agency.
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5/14
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Sighting:
Nate Cavanaugh and Donald Park reportedly are assigned email addresses and reserved office space at the Export-Import Bank of the US.
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5/20
|
Official:
A memo directed to NRC from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) declares that OIRA should have oversight over regulations made at the independent agency and that NRC staff “may not know or be privy to the bases for OMB decisions for why an action is significant.”
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5/21
|
||
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5/23
|
Official:
President Trump issues EO 14300, which orders the NRC to relax its regulatory oversight over the nuclear industry. It also demands that the agency must plan for a Reduction-in-Force (RIF) and realign its organizational priorities. Following the model used by the Trump Administration for other independent agencies, this is probably the prelude for DOGE to arrive at the agency.
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|
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c.5/23
|
Action:
In a meeting shortly after Trump signed executive orders relating to the NRC, DOGE staffer Adam Blake reportedly told the chair and top staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they would be expected to “rubber stamp” any reactor designs which might be tested by the Department of Energy or the Department of Defense.
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|
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6/16
|
Disruption:
White House Deputy Director Trent Morse sends a letter firing one of the five members of the board (and the only Biden appointee) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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|
|
7/01
|
||
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7/11
|
Sighting:
In a written response to questions from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the nominee to head the NRC reveals there is currently one DOGE staffer (reported as Adam Blake) detailed to the agency from the Department of Energy to reform the agency following the guidance in EO 14300.
|
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation has also found itself under the thumb of DOGE, with Luke Farritor leading a delegation of people from HHS to scrutinize all their funding. Their target is to cut all grant funding by 55%, which will have a catastrophic effect on science in America.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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4/11
|
Disruption:
Luke Farritor uses his admin access to lock out all government officials at multiple agencies from using grants.gov to issue new grants. Instead, all grants must now be sent to a new email address which will be reviewed by DOGE staffers before grants can be posted.
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|
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4/14
|
Sighting:
Three unidentified DOGE staffers show up at NSF headquarters, forcing all approved grants to go through a “secondary review.” They were later identified as Luke Farritor, Rachel Riley and Zach Terrell.
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|
4/18
|
Disruption:
In retribution against Harvard University for rejecting demands from the Trump Administration on April 14th, the National Science Foundation begins rejecting scientific grants, stating they weren’t in alignment with current NSF priorities.
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|
|
4/22
|
Directory:
Three DOGE staffers are now at the National Science Foundation reviewing grants. Luke Farritor has a “Budget, Finance, and Administration” clearance, which a source said allows him to view and modify the agency’s funding opportunity system.
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|
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6/25
|
Disruption:
In a surprise move, the Republican governor of Virginia, the head of public buildings service at GSA and the Commissioner for HUD announce that they will be kicking out the National Science Foundation (NSF) from its Virginia headquarters and moving HUD to that location. There are no details provided on where NSF is expected to relocate to.
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|
|
6/26
|
Official:
In an email to agency partners, the operators of grants.gov declare that the revised mechanism added in April that routed all Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) through a DOGE email address has been reversed. Instead, agencies are to return to using the tool like that did previously. This doesn’t necessarily mean that DOGE or political appointees will not be reviewing grants, but they have no longer locked other users out of the system.
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7/22
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Service Organizations
Service organizations have also been a focus of the Trump Administration’s ire. Recently, there have been moves to shut down the funding and staffing for the Peace Corps and the AmeriCorps, with vague allegations of fraud used as a cover for sweeping reductions.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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4/10
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Disruption:
AmeriCorps’ acting director submits a plan to the OPM and OMB proposing a 50% cut in the agency workforce.
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4/16
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Disruption:
Agency staff at AmeriCorps are placed on immediate administrative leave and banned from accessing agency systems.
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4/25
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Disruption:
DOGE staff within AmeriCorps start terminating roughly $400 million in grants (roughly 41% of the total grant funding) to 1,031 organizations across America. The reason given is that the grant “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”
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7/22
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Disruption:
After losing its grant on May 28, Oregon’s Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) is forced to end many of its programs that served rural communities in the state.
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Legislative Branch Agencies
In one of DOGE’s most bizarre turns, thet have attempted to embed DOGE teams into the Library of Congress and Government Accountability Office (GAO). The problem is that both of these are legislative branch agencies and thus well outside the authority of DOGE to police them or shut them down.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
5/13
|
Sighting:
Justin Fox emails GAO (cc’ing Nate Cavanaugh) to schedule a call to get a DOGE team assigned to the GAO. This is despite the GAO being located in the legislative branch and thus not answerable to the President.
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5/16
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Merit System Protection Board
Finally, DOGE has picked up its original mission of harrassing federal workers by attempting to shut down the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), which ensures that government personnel rules are fairly enforced.
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
|
5/16
|
Sighting:
Staff at the MSPB receive an email informing them that Nate Cavanaugh will be onboarded on May 21 as a detailee “from DOGE” and that he is expected to spend several weeks reviewing contracts and spending. He will be working remotely.
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