AFGE, Public Citizen, and State Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF) filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for violating a law requiring that an advisory committee such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) be fairly balanced in its membership and points of view.
Despite the name, DOGE is not a department of the United States government. The lawsuit charges that Trump and OMB are violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) because DOGE’s members do not have a fair balance of viewpoints, meetings are held in secret and without public notice, and records and work product are not available to the public.
“The advice and guidance that Mr. Trump has charged DOGE with producing is sweeping and consequential: DOGE is to ‘pave the way for [his] Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies’,” said the lawsuit. “At the same time, DOGE—the members of which currently do not represent the interests of everyday Americans—will be recommending cuts to government agencies and programs that protect health, benefits, consumer finance, and product safety. Its work and recommendations thus may endanger Plaintiffs and the hundreds of thousands of everyday people whom they represent.”
“This advisory committee led by Musk and Ramaswamy, who hold financial interests that will be directly affected by federal budgetary and regulatory policies, is beset both by conflicts of interest and the biased and extremist views of the libertarian billionaire class,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen.
“As constructed, DOGE’s mission to advise OMB and the White House on how to slash regulations and cut expenditures puts at risk important consumer safeguards and public protections. It fails to consider how to more efficiently regulate companies to better protect consumers, how to eliminate wasteful and inefficient corporate subsidies and efficient public investments to make America stronger,” added Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert.
“This is not about cutting redundant staff; this is about billionaires gutting important programs that American citizens across the country rely on every single day without adequate transparency or accountability,” said Ambassador Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund “We are a country where everyone is beholden to the rule of law. No one, no matter the size of their checkbook or the office they hold, is exempt from following our laws.”
“AFGE will not stand idly by as a secretive group of ultra-wealthy individuals with major conflicts of interest attempt to deregulate themselves and give their own companies sweetheart government contracts while firing civil servants and dismantling the institutions designed to serve the American people,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. “This fight is about fairness, accountability, and the integrity of our government. Federal employees are not the problem—they are the solution. They deserve to have their voices heard in decisions that affect their work, their agencies, and the public they serve”
AFGE, Allies Seek Appointment of Representatives to be members of DOGE
Each of the three organizations, Public Citizen, SDDF and AFGE, previously sent a letter to Trump transition co-chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon regarding their concerns about the failure to comply with FACA and requesting representation on the advisory group to ensure that it met FACA requirements. A Trump transition spokesperson rejected SDDF’s request, stating that “we have no room in our administration for Democrats.” Public Citizen and AFGE have yet to receive responses.
“DOGE’s present membership, however, represents only one point of view,” Kelley said in the Jan. 16 letter. “That one point of view is predicated on a singular goal of eliminating federal agencies, employees, and regulations. DOGE also is presently headed by two wealthy individuals with little government experience yet who stand to gain personally from the elimination and deregulation they champion.”
Kelley said DOGE has already rejected expert voices and made clear they intended to turn the advisory committee into a partisan effort stacked with billionaires and corporate special interests.
“This approach not only undermines the legitimacy of DOGE’s efforts but also sets it up for failure in its core mission of creating a government that works efficiently and effectively for all Americans, not just a privileged few,” Kelley said. “That’s why we joined other concerned organizations in filing suit to ensure the Department of Government Efficiency complies with the law, including its obligations to be transparent and hear from the American people.”