Published at Open the Books Substack

The Trump Administration was only a few minutes old when it was hit with three lawsuits, all concerning the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The suits were filed before the inauguration ceremony had even concluded and President Trump had signed an executive order establishing DOGE. The suits argue DOGE doesn’t comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which requires advisory committees to meet certain requirements, like politically balanced membership, publicly accessible meetings, and a public charter.

Later on January 20, Trump signed and released the Executive Order “Establishing and Implementing the President's ‘Department of Government Efficiency.’” The document makes clear that rather than a traditional “advisory committee,” DOGE will instead repurpose an old Obama-era office – U.S. Digital Services – which is housed in the Executive Office of the President.

The scope of DOGE’s task becomes clearer when you peruse the Federal Register – the official journal of the United States government, where all rules and public notices can be found. A staggering 441 different federal agencies are listed; but shockingly, a lot of those agencies are effectively defunct or obsolete; they’ve been subsumed by other entities, renamed, or don’t even exist any longer.