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REFUSING TO HELP DOGE ‘DISMANTLE CRITICAL PUBLIC SERVICES,’ 21
TECH EXPERTS RESIGN  
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Jessica Corbett
February 25, 2025
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ "We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the
Constitution across presidential administrations," they wrote.
"However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those
commitments." _

People hold up signs as they protest against U.S. President Donald
Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency outside of
the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. on February 5, 2025, Drew
Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

 

Over 20 U.S. federal tech workers who were forced into President
Donald Trump [[link removed]] and
billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency
[[link removed]]
resigned in protest on Tuesday, according to
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a joint letter obtained by _The Associated Press_.

The 21 data scientists, engineers, and product managers were initially
part of the United States Digital Service, established during the
Obama administration. However, one of Trump's first executive orders
states
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that it "is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE
[[link removed]] Service (USDS) and shall be
established in the Executive Office of the President."

As the _AP_ detailed, "earlier this month, about 40 staffers in the
office were laid off," leaving about 65 employees who "were integrated
into DOGE's government-slashing effort." About a third of the spared
workers—who previously worked for companies such as Amazon and
Google—joined the mass resignation.

"We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the
Constitution across presidential administrations," wrote the 21
staffers, according to the news agency. "However, it has become clear
that we can no longer honor those commitments."

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core
government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle
critical public services," they explained. "We will not lend our
expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE's actions."

Their resignation letter sounds the alarm about recent interviews
conducted by Musk loyalists that "created significant security risks,"
noting that "several of these interviewers refused to identify
themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit
colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical
ability."

The letter also criticizes the recent USDS layoffs that "focused on
people in roles like designers, product managers, human resources, and
contracting staff," according to the _AP_, which cited interviews with
current and former staff.

"These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social
Security, veterans' services, tax filing, healthcare, disaster relief,
student aid, and other critical services," the letter states. "Their
removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services
every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes
critical systems and American's data less safe."

The firings at USDS are just part of Musk and Trump's sweeping effort
to slash government spending and the federal workforce.

"Musk clearly loves to depict DOGE as a lean, mean efficiency
machine," _Intelligencer_ columnist Ed Kilgore wrote
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last week. "But it seems increasingly obvious that its efforts to
reduce personnel levels and spending mostly reflect an ideology that
treats whole areas of government as illegitimate and completely
arbitrary reductions in force as a valuable end in themselves."

Fueling such arguments, the _AP_revealed
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Tuesday that nearly 40% of the federal contracts the Trump
administration has canceled won't save any money. The Musk-led
[[link removed]] effort "published
an updated list Monday [[link removed]] of nearly 2,300
contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal
government," the news agency reported. "Data published on DOGE's 'Wall
of Receipts' shows that more than one-third of the contract
cancellations, 794 in all, are expected to yield no savings."

Reporting on DOGE's failures and the mass resignation came amid mixed
messaging about a Saturday email from the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM), the government's human resources agency, ordering
federal workers to respond by the end of Monday with five bullet
points listing what they did last week. Musk said
[[link removed]] on his social
media platform X that "failure to respond will be taken as a
resignation."

Then, _Politico_
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and _The Washington Post
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reported Monday that the Trump administration had told federal
department heads that they could direct staff to ignore the list
requirement and Musk's threat, and emails from agency leaders
informing workers they should not respond began circulating on social
media.

Further adding to the confusion, the president told reporters Monday
afternoon that anyone who doesn't reply would be "sort of
semi-fired—or you're fired," and Musk later wrote
[[link removed]] on X: "Subject to
the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance.
Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

Meanwhile, a Monday guidance from OPM states
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in part that responses to the initial Saturday email "should be
directed to agency leadership," who "may exclude personnel from this
expectation at their discretion and should inform OPM of the
categories of the employees excluded and reasons for exclusion."

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, a union that has pushed back on DOGE
initiatives, said
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in a Monday statement that "Elon Musk's latest email fiasco is yet
another example of the chaotic and callous treatment of federal
employees that has been the hallmark of Trump's second term."

"It was nothing but a cynical attempt to demean federal workers and
terrorize them into quitting," Kelley continued. "To be clear, federal
employees report to the agencies who employ them through established
chains of command. They do not report to OPM, 'DOGE,' and definitely
not to Elon Musk." [[link removed]]

"I'm glad reality is teaching them the lessons they refuse to teach
themselves on how to run a functional civil service," the union leader
added. "Make no mistake we will continue to hold Elon Musk and the
entire Trump administration accountable for their illegal actions."

While DOGE has hit
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legal snags thanks to challenges from unions and other critics, the
Trump administration has demonstrated
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willingness to defy court orders and congressional Republicans are
already targeting
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federal judges with articles of impeachment for impeding the
president's agenda.

===

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

* Federal Employees; Elon Musk; Government Workers; American
Federation of Government Employees;
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