Nearly two dozen federal techies working on the Department of Government Efficiency’s spending cuts resigned Tuesday, accusing Elon Musk of trying to “dismantle critical public services.”
The 21 staffers, who were engineers, data scientists and product managers at US Digital Service, said in a resignation letter obtained by The Associated Press that they felt they could no longer in good conscience carry out some of DOGE’s objectives.
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the workers wrote. “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,” the staffers said. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.”
The workers who quit constituted roughly a third of the 65 staff members who had been at the agency, which is part of the Office of Management and Budget and also helps with IT issues in the Executive Office of the President.
Earlier this month, 40 other Digital Service staffers were forced out, including designers, human-resources workers and contracting staff, according to current and former employees to the AP.
“These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services,” the other group’s Tuesday resignation letter said. “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.”
Federal judges have already dealt blows to some of DOGE’s cost-cutting directives at the hands of Musk’s reportedly wet-behind-the-ears minions, but that hasn’t halted the billionaire or his team of engineers onboarding at various agencies from pressing forward to find waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars and call for mass firings.
The Digital Service employees who resigned had previously worked at big tech firms such as Google and Amazon and wrote in their letter that they were unimpressed with the experience and technical knowledge of the DOGE cost-cutters.
“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 group said. “This process created significant security risks.”
The Musk-inspired techies wore White House visitors’ badges and grilled the civil servants at times about their personal political opinions, some targeted staffers said.
Booted Digital Service engineer Jonathan Kamens went public with his experience after being swept up in the initial firings, telling The AP that he believes he was sacked for having endorsed Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024.
Reps for the Digital Service and White House did not respond to Post requests for comment Tuesday.
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