More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.
Employees who resigned say they joined the government out of a sense of duty to public service
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”
The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president’s tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs.
The staffers who resigned worked for what was once known as the United States Digital Service, an office established during President Barack Obama’s administration after the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov, the web portal that millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans through the Democrat’s signature health care law.
Click here to read more about the staffers’ resignations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is dismissive of the mass DOGE resignations
“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers.”
The head of the IRS is resigning
IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell will retire from the agency after roughly 40 years of service, according to a person familiar with his plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to lack to authorization. His last day is Friday.
O’Donnell will be replaced by Melanie Krause — who has worked at the IRS since 2021, having come from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, according to her LinkedIn account.
In January, former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel stepped down from his position, though his term was not scheduled to end until 2027.
The turnover of officials at the IRS comes as the agency has laid off roughly 7,000 probationary employees with one year or less of service at the agency and largely includes workers in the compliance department. The cuts are one of the largest purges of probationary workers this year across the government.
O’Donnell’s resignation also comes as furor spread last week over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was said to gain access to IRS taxpayer data, though the person said Treasury and the White House have agreed to restrict DOGE access to sensitive data at the IRS.
