Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force sent staffers to the National Labor Relations Board, reported NPR on Wednesday — just a day after news broke about a whistleblower disclosing that DOGE may have seized crucial labor data from that agency.
"DOGE representatives visited the National Labor Relations Board office in Washington, D.C. for a meeting, according to an email obtained by NPR," said the report. "The email, sent to staff on behalf of NLRB chairman Marvin E. Kaplan and acting general counsel William Cowen and shared with NPR by two NLRB employees at regional offices who are not authorized to speak publicly, said two DOGE representatives would be detailed to the agency from the General Services Administration "part-time for several months" and would largely work remotely."
The email stated: "The representatives have requested information about agency operations but asked us to remove any personally identifiable information from documents we provide. Consistent with the President's Executive Order and applicable laws, the Agency will comply with DOGE's requests for access and information."
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Experts have sounded the alarm at this intrusion, particularly at the timing of it.
"DOGE coming into the building with access to systems prior to an investigation is a major red flag — what are they doing now? Someone needs to step in, isolate the systems, and conduct an investigation," said Andrew Bakaj, who is a part of Whistleblower Aid, the organization representing Daniel Berulis, who came forward with the information about DOGE making off with labor data.
Musk, who is not formally in charge of DOGE but in practice is the brains of the operation, also heads up a number of tech companies including SpaceX, which is one of the plaintiffs in a major federal case arguing the NLRB's structure is unconstitutional. Musk has also faced a long history of allegations of union-busting at his firms, and last year United Auto Workers requested a federal investigation into claims he and Trump discussed illegally firing striking workers.
Trump himself has sought to defang NLRB's union rights enforcement since taking office, moving to fire Democratic members of the agency despite legal protections prohibiting this. That case is currently winding its way through federal courts.