Is DOGE actually an agency? The answer could have major ramifications

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has blitzed its way through federal agencies over the last two months, spawning dozens of lawsuits in its effort to shrink the federal government.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has blitzed its way through federal agencies over the last two months, spawning dozens of lawsuits in its effort to shrink the federal government. As judges take a closer look at how DOGE is operating, and what authority it exercises across the federal bureaucracy, among the many questions they’re asking is whether DOGE is actually a government agency itself. The answer to that question, pedantic as it may sound, could have major ramifications, including whether DOGE is subject to public records laws and other statutes that require some oversight of executive branch activity. The laws could pose a check on what Musk can do with his government-slashing project — both by granting access to what’s happening behind the scenes, and by giving legal challengers tools to potentially reverse some of his most drastic actions. If DOGE is determined to be a government entity that wields “substantial authority independently of the President,” the public can seek the release of some of its internal records under the Freedom of Information Act. The Trump administration is saying in court that federal agencies, rather than Musk’s DOGE initiatives, are what’s driving the cuts. That’s quite different from the dramatic, braggadocios, chain saw-waving picture Musk and President Donald Trump have painted in the public arena.