The Week Ahead

February 2, 2025

What can we do? That’s the question on everyone’s lips as we start the week. It’s one of the most important questions right now, and it’s hard to find concrete answers, but for tonight’s “Week Ahead,” we’ll try to get a start on it.

Although much of the news is difficult, there is some reason for optimism coming out of the FBI, where senior agents in some field offices appear to be pushing back against orders that agents who worked on January 6 cases must “self-report.” The entire process is unethical and probably illegal, with an odor of “self-criticism” during the Maoist era in China that required those who were not ideologically pure enough for the day’s leaders to disclose their “errors” for public shame and punishment. The president who pardoned the rioters wants to punish the agents who protect our country. But according to Politico, some FBI leaders have “urged subordinates not to fill out the questionnaire and let higher-ranking officials handle the fallout.” The federal workforce continues to shine a light. Agents’ reports are due Monday by 3 p.m., so we’ll learn more about where this headed tomorrow.

I read Wired’s story titled, “The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover,” with a growing sense of disgust. Government employees take an oath to the Constitution. Their mission is to serve the public. But if reporting is accurate, Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is not a government agency and which is staffed by private individuals loyal to Musk, not the interests of Americans, has, while inserting itself into government payments systems housed at the Treasury Department, unlawfully accessed some of the most sensitive information the government maintains about citizens and businesses.

The full story is complicated and still emerging. On Saturday, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, raised the alert. He posted that he’d been told Trump’s new Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, gave DOGE “*full* access” to the U.S. Treasury payment system. That includes “Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.”

You can find more detail about the systems that were accessed in news reports here and here. The office’s website gives a detailed picture of what they do, including processing salary, benefits payments, and tax returns to millions of Americans. A similar takeover of data and systems is reportedly underway at the Office of Personnel Management.

If private individuals accessed this information for one or more people without proper authorization, we’d call it a federal crime. What happened here is well beyond that, and it’s important to call it what it is. The language in the Wired story describes a coup—a takeover of government by a self-appointed group that wasn’t duly elected by the American people. Musk and his crew of men barely out of their teens haven’t taken an oath to serve, and they are not accountable to the public. They are not a “Department” of anything. They’re a private army that has taken over. Presidents can set up private advisory groups, but they have to function according to the rules, which include transparency. That’s not what’s happening here.

Lawfare’s Anna Bowers wrote a piece laying out the four different lawsuits challenging DOGE and calling for a halt to its work until it complies with federal regulations that were filed last week. Following the reporting about its activities over the weekend, it’s almost certain that we will see renewed efforts in court this week to halt DOGE’s activities. It’s hard to assess the potential success of individual cases, which turn on the standing of the plaintiffs and the arguments being made, but there is good reason to be optimistic, especially knowing that the lawyers are at work. Even the Supreme Court may be less than thrilled by the prospect of Elon Musk controlling their purse strings.

DOGE’s self-proclaimed mission to find $2 trillion in cuts to the federal budget doesn’t require access to the Treasury systems that send out checks to Americans. (For the record, the federal government spent $6.75 trillion dollars in fiscal year 2023.) Saturday morning, Musk posted and then pinned this Tweet, ratcheting up his claim about how much money he would snatch away from government programs. But how is he going to get there? Does it involve using his newfound access to payment systems? Whether that is the ultimate plan or not, the chaos leads to serious concern. This is not how our Constitution orders government and the courts should put a stop to it. Expect to see a flurry of litigation in this regard.

From the name he’s given his little venture, it’s clear that Musk thinks this is something of a joke or a gambit. “DOGE,” comes from an internet meme involving a Shiba Inu dog. Among others things, she was the inspiration for Dogecoin, a form of cryptocurrency that Musk has repeatedly praised. That’s the level of seriousness he brought to this exercise, which now has access to payment systems and personal information for what is likely to be millions of Americans. So, here’s a place where we can all start. Don’t refer to DOGE as a “Department,” which cloaks it in the legitimacy of lawful government operations. Make sure you refer to it as the rogue enterprise that it is, an illicit effort to take over government. The reporting in Wired makes clear that this is completely off the rails.

And, of course, what’s happening with DOGE is just one piece of it. Trump is flooding the zone with so much that it’s impossible to comprehend it all. That’s deliberate. We know that, but it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to deal with. However, it does give us some insight into how we can stand up for what’s right.

Under the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse. Donald Trump lost the fight over impoundment in court last week, and appeals are underway. But for now that power remains with Congress. It would be feckless of congressional Republicans to give it away to Elon Musk. People who voted to lower the price of eggs may feel differently if programs they rely on are cut or tax refunds are slower than usual in arriving. Don’t hesitate to share truthful information about what’s happening whenever the opportunity presents itself. Whatever Donald Trump is up to, senators still have to run for reelection.

Senator Wyden has demanded information about what Musk is up to. That request is more likely to carry weight if there is an outpouring of public support and if every senator on the Senate Finance Committee understands Americans insist on getting those answers. The committee’s jurisdiction explicitly includes the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service. It’s their obligation to look into the breach of this system before more damage is done.

Senators on the Committee include Chairman Mike Crapo (R - ID) and ranking member Ron Wyden, Chuck Grassley (R - IA), John Cornyn (R - TX), John Thune (R - SD), Tim Scott (R - SC), Bill Cassidy (R - LA), James Lankford (R - OK), Steve Daines (R - MT), Todd Young (R - IN), John Barrasso (R - WY), Ron Johnson (R - WI), Thom Tillis (R - NC), Marsha Blackburn (R - TN), Roger Marshall (R - KS), Maria Cantwell (D - WA), Michael F. Bennet (D - CO), Mark R. Warner (D - VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D - RI), Maggie Hassan (D - NH), Catherine Cortez Masto (D - NV), Elizabeth Warren (D - MA), Bernie Sanders (D - VT), Tina Smith (D - MN), Ben Luján (D - NM), Raphael Warnock (D - GA), and Peter Welch (D - VT). You can reach them through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or look up individual offices for email and regular mail contact information.

Our voices do matter, even if you, like me, have two Republican Senators. We don’t have to accept any of this, and we have every right to be heard. Going through our elected officials is one of the ways we petition government, which we have a right to do under the First Amendment. We should use it.

I asked my former Senator, Doug Jones, if it matters when Americans contact their senators, and this is what he told me: “What the Administration is doing affects everyone, and it is through the collective voices of Americans to their elected representatives that such hurtful and shameful policies can be stopped. Don’t wait on others. Be the one to cast the pebble into the pond and start the ripples of change.”

This series of responses to a post I made on Bluesky earlier today brought it into focus for me.

They represent the progression so many of us are going through right now—confusion, anger, indignation, and finally, the understanding that democracy requires our engagement. Even though it’s imperfect and it doesn’t always work, tossing the pebbles that start the ripples of change is the path forward. Government is supposed to work for us. Let’s insist that it does. Donald Trump is known to back down in the face of sustained opposition. Let’s get to work on that. Take courage from what’s happening among the ranks of career civil servants.

Take heart, and remind yourself of the words said by Revolutionary War sea captain John Paul Jones when the British demanded that he surrender his outmaneuvered frigate, already beginning to sink. “I have not yet begun to fight,” he told them. Ultimately, he won the battle.

We’re in this together,

Joyce