Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—DOGE’s attempts to infiltrate GAO are strongly rebuked by Congress members, rebuffed by agency, (May 20, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“GAO provides essential, nonpartisan services to Congress and answers directly to Congress, not the executive branch.”

Last week, GAO personnel received an email from a DOGE team member regarding “getting a DOGE team assigned to the agency” and referencing President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order establishing DOGE as authority for assigning the team.

GAO’s response to email. A few days later, GAO responded in a letter sent to the Acting Administrator of DOGE stating that “GAO declines any requests or actions to have DOGE assigned to GAO” and explaining that “GAO is an agency in the legislative branch, not the executive branch.” This status, GAO stated in the letter, “has long been established and articulated by statute and the United States Supreme Court.”

“Our mission is to assist the Congress,” General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez wrote on behalf of GAO. “Our work is performed for the Congress in furtherance of its constitutional legislative, appropriations and oversight functions.”

Congress members respond. On the same day, Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Joseph D. Morelle, Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, wrote to the DOGE Acting Administrator, stating their “extraordinary alarm about attempted intrusion by” DOGE into GAO. “This action is a direct assault on the independence of a coequal branch of government and threatens to undermine the separation of powers that is foundational to our constitutional republic,” they wrote. “DOGE must immediately cease any attempt to embed personnel within GAO or any other agency of the legislative branch.”

They note that under “well-settled law” GAO is an independent agency within the Legislative Branch, a fact that the first Trump Administration previously acknowledged.

“GAO provides essential, nonpartisan services to Congress and answers directly to Congress, not the executive branch,” they wrote. “DOGE cannot and must not have any access to GAO. DOGE must immediately cease any attempts to subvert the coequal authority of the legislative branch.”

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