House Democrats ask GAO to review DOGE impact at DHS

House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee are asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for an accounting of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) impact at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“Since hijacking the U.S. Digital Service to establish DOGE, Elon Musk’s unqualified staff have fanned out across the Federal government. They have embedded themselves within departments and agencies, including DHS, to seize sensitive data, purge civil servants, and gut programs with no regard to the critical services they provide everyday Americans,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote in the lawmakers' letter, which was also signed by Democratic Reps Eric Swalwell (Calif.), Seth Magaziner (R.I.), Shri Thanedar (Mich.), LaMonica McIver (N.J.), Lou Correa (Calif.) and Timothy Kennedy (N.Y.).

The lawmakers seek to ascertain the total number of DHS employees who departed as a result of DOGE, whether through a buyout ignited by DOGE leader Musk or a separate demand from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to fire probationary employees hired within the last year or two.

The letter asks the GAO to “assess the legality of any guidance provided to DHS by DOGE” on which probationary employees to fire.

It also asks for a breakdown of the data on terminations for each agency within DHS and “the resulting impact on the Department’s ability to conduct its mission.”

Homeland Security previously fired at least 400 people across the agency.

The letter also asks the GAO to review the controversial weekend emails from Musk demanding that federal employees send five bullet notes to recap their weeks.

The lawmakers ask the GAO to determine who within DHS reviews the emails and whether anyone beyond DHS has looked at the responses.

They also raise questions about the extent DOGE staff had access to DHS systems asking for “any data exfiltrated from DHS information systems to non-DHS information systems, determine the purpose for which the data were exfiltrated, and assess whether DOGE utilized appropriate controls to secure the data.”