An advocacy group is asking a federal court to compel the Trump administration to turn over records detailing plans to slash staffing at 29 agencies, including EPA.
Democracy Forward’s lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demands transparency on plans the group says would handcuff a wide range of government services, from Social Security payments to environmental enforcement. The group said the plans are particularly alarming in light of secrecy around the role of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce.
“The Trump-Musk duo continues to operate in secret, making unlawful decisions that impact every single American. We should all be concerned by efforts to threaten critical services that millions of Americans rely on and risk millions of jobs,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, in a statement. “The American people deserve to know what’s going on behind closed doors as Musk and the Trump administration take aim at agencies that are core to the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.”
Democracy Forward said it has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for “reduction in force,” or RIF, plans at 29 agencies, as laid out in a Feb. 26 memo from the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government’s answer to a human resources department.
