The White House opens the financing of Spigot for dogg

The new Department of Government Efficiency Manager does not get a paycheck and does not need an – Elon Musk’s $ 418 billion network value from Monday competed the entire gross domestic product of Denmark at the last count.

But what was once thought of as an external advisory board is now very much in the federal government and draws an official salary, so to speak. Nearly $ 7 million has been “distributed” over the past week to cover the agency’s expenses, while administration is trying to freeze large bunkers of state funding as part of Doges’ mandate to eradicate programs considered wasted or out of step with the president’s priorities.

“Despite the fact that they produced the United States Doge Service out of thin air, President Musk has already grown his non-elected bureaucracy to claim nearly $ 7 million of US taxpayer funding,” said House grants, who are placed in Rosa Delauro, D-Conn., said in a statement in a statement. She said the amount is “almost twice the annual wages and expenses for the White House.”

On his first day in the office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that created the muscular “United States Doge Service” out of what used to be called the digital service of the United States.

The old American digital service had been technically part of the Office of Management and Budget and withdrew its annual budget from an account within the president’s executive office labeled “Information technology monitoring and reform.”

An official in the White House said that DOGE “DEPARTMENTS” – which is OMB speech for the gradual release of allocated funds – simply represents what had instead gone to the digital service before it was transformed into DOGE.

The total distribution of $ 6.75 million came in two bites – a first $ 750,000 on January 27, followed by $ 6 million on January 30 – to “unexpected needs” within the president’s executive office, according to data published by OMB.

Footnotes in the releases say the money “(P) Rovides for expected reimbursements from agencies to support the software modernization initiative.” This means that the money is delivered to DODE to do work on behalf of the agencies and spend their money to pay for them, said a house democratic aid.

Trump’s executive order draws out that DOGE “has to embark on a software modernization initiative to improve the quality and effectiveness of state software, network infrastructure and information technology (IT) systems.” It is similar to mission like the former digital service, which was originally created under the Obama administration.

Privacy concerns

However, Doge’s purpose not stated in the executive order that creates it – but very publicly articulated by Musk – is much more sweeping than just updating the government’s IT systems. Tesla, X and SpaceX CEO have gained access to some of the most sensitive federal government data in search of cancellations for cancellation and entire agencies to shut down, in some cases.

The executive order gave hints of this maneuver that is only ready now: “Agency executives must take all the necessary steps … and to the maximum extent that is in line with the law, to ensure that USDS has full and quick access to All unclassified agency registers, software systems, and IT systems. “

The order continues to say that DOGE “has to comply with strict data protection standards”, but critics within and outside the government do not think that is what Musk is intending. Two AFL-CIO Member Associations and Alliance for retired Americans, a nonprofit, filed a case to a federal court on Monday, seeking to enjoin Doge’s access to Treasury’s electronic payment system, which manages approx. $ 6 trillion in annual payouts.

“The extent of penetration into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented. Millions of people cannot avoid participating in financial transactions with the federal government and therefore cannot help but have their sensitive personal and financial information maintained in government registers, ”the complaint says. “People who have to share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his ‘DOGE.’ And federal law says they don’t need it. “

Senate’s appropriations ranking member Patty Murray said on Monday that the Democrats “pulled the fire alarm” on Musk’s activities, but it was up to Republicans to stand up for Musk and put a stop to his activities.

“Think about how many dollars he even earns from government contracts, and the Trump administration hand over the keys to the treasury for him,” said Murray, D-Wash. “It doesn’t become more obvious corrupt than that.”

Senate’s minority leader Charles E. Schumer, DN.Y., said that he and the house’s minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., plan to introduce legislation to block Musk’s access to Treasury data. Jeffries wrote on Monday separately to colleagues that Democrats must insist on government financing negotiations that the language is included to force the administration to release funds allocated by Congress.

‘Not many spartans’

It was not immediately clear what was specifically refunded for with $ 6.75 million. Musk’s team includes “six young men – all apparently between 19 and 24 years” According to Wiredwho said at least one worked without pay. Other reports attested their software technical skills despite their youth.

Musk did not contend the reports in posts on his x social media platform. “Not many spartans are needed to win battles,” Musk wrote in one post, and in another highlighted the group’s technical talents. Other apparently doge -team members are older, more established IT veterans, such as Tom Krause, CEO of Citrix Operator Cloud Software Group Inc., The New York Times reported.

In December, Trump appointed Katie Miller – whose man is Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy staff manager – also for the Doge team.

Financing history

Dog’s distributions on January 27 and January 30 say that the money comes from funds allocated in the second accounting change 2024 -grant package. This law delivered $ 8 million for information technology monitoring and reform account used to finance the US digital service, down from $ 13.7 million in the financial year 2023.

The House’s Fiscal Policy Act on Financial Services in 2025 suggested to flatten the account at the current level, while the Senate proposed to increase this amount to $ 30 million. Now with the advent of DOGE, it will be interesting to see how much the ITOR account receives in the final expenditure legislation that is due on March 14 when the Stop Gap Act runs out.

On top of the annual grants, the digital service received $ 200 million directly as part of the 2021 Pandemic Relief package. Legislators have tried to exploit that money for other things and eventually agreed to resign from $ 10 million of it in the financial year 2024 law – after the senators initially tried to itch $ 80 million. This pandemic relief financing had a deadline for obligation on September 30, 2024, so all the remaining funds from this appropriation are probably inaccessible at this time.

The annual appropriation language typically says that the money is for “necessary costs to promote integrated, effective, safe and effective use of information technology in the federal government.” It also gives the OMB Director’s authority to “transfer these funds to one or more other agencies to implement projects to meet these purposes.”

A new element of the DODE distribution is that the group now has its own treasury, separated from ITOR.

The house’s democratic aid pointed out that this seems to be an attempt to stand up dog separately within the president’s executive office outside the OMB’s Purview. That would be in line with Trump’s executive order that decides that the Doge administrator reports directly to the staff manager at the White House Susie Wiles.

Aidan Quigley and David Lerman contributed to this report.