GAO thwarts DOGE attempt to set up a team in the watchdog; DOGE could target OPM breach identity protections

The Government Accountability Office blocked an attempt by Elon Musk’s DOGE to install a team at the congressional watchdog, according to a spokesperson for the independent, nonpartisan agency and an email shared with FedScoop. The spokesperson said that DOGE staffers who attempted to establish a team at the watchdog cited President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the efficiency-driven group within the White House. The spokesperson further confirmed that the agency had “declined any requests to have a DOGE team assigned to GAO.” The watchdog also sent an email to its staff Friday about the attempt and its response, a GAO source confirmed. According to the text of that email shared with FedScoop, GAO said it sent a letter to DOGE’s acting administrator “stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or Executive Orders.”

A top Senate Intelligence Democrat is warning the Office of Personnel Management against cancelling identity protection services that have been provided to current and former federal employees since their data was exposed in the massive 2015 OPM data breach. In a letter sent Friday to OPM acting Director Charles Ezell, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed concerns about Department of Government Efficiency-instituted cuts to the personnel agency and plans that it may have to “curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015.” The breach of OPM servers by Chinese-backed hackers rocked Washington and the federal workforce a decade ago, as the Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and other personal information of more than 21 million individuals were exposed. At the time, Warner, his Virginia Senate colleague Tim Kaine and then-Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland co-sponsored the RECOVER Act to provide identity protection services to those impacted by the OPM breach. Congress appropriated funds for those services “for a period of not less than 10 years.”