Trump's DOGE executive order says Musk's efforts will focus on IT

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Establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting initiative led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, was done through an official executive order. This order also contained more information on DOGE's objectives and organizational design, including a requirement to modernize the government's IT infrastructure.

In November, with a statement that said the effort would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government." The goal, he added in November, would be to offer suggestions for "slashing unnecessary regulations, cutting wasteful spending, and restructuring federal agencies."

Yearly federal expenses can be reduced by focusing on "expenses that are unauthorized by the Congress or being used in ways which the Congress never intended."

However, President Trump's executive order says that the Digital Operation Governance Expertise (DOGE) program will actually be part of the executive branch, not an outside advisory committee. The order also states that an existing White House office called the U.S. Digital Service — which primarily focuses on making government websites and technology better — will now be called the U.S. DOGE Service.

The purpose of DOGE will be to "implement the President's DOGE Agenda, by modernizing government technology and software to increase governmental efficiency and productivity," as stated in the EO.

The executive order doesn't provide any specifics on reducing federal spending, eliminating regulations, or reorganizing federal agencies. However, the absence of cost-cutting references in the EO doesn't necessarily rule out addressing those issues, such as modernizing federal IT systems, in addition to already planned mandates.

The Trump administration has not yet provided a response to a request for comment.

DOGE lawsuits

The suits seem to take issue with DOGE's structure and actions up to this point, specifically with the cases filed a short time after Mr. Trump's inauguration on Monday. The lawsuits argue that because DOGE had been operating as a federal advisory committee, it had violated a law called the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or FACA.

FACA oversees the operations and openness of federal advisory committees, insisting they operate openly to the public and include representatives from groups that may be impacted by their operations.

However, with President Trump's executive order establishing DOGE as a unit within the executive branch, it appears that the effort won't be functioning as a federal advisory committee. Democracy Forward, which is representing some of the groups suing DOGE, states that the executive order won't change their plans.

Our legal team is studying the executive orders issued yesterday. It appears DOGE has been secretly operating in violation of federal law over a long period, and these executive actions don't seem to have affected them.

And National Security Counselors, another public service group that's suing DOGE, said they don't "have any reason to believe that the entity created by the recent executive order is the same animal as the advisory committee we are litigating about."

The executive order has certainly created some confusion, but ultimately, the key will be what actions the new US Digital Services organization actually takes and how," said Kel McClanahan, executive director of the National Security Counselors, said on Tuesday. "It is hard to picture the large and complex Digital Services division led by Musk and Ramaswamy taking a step back and focusing on upgrading the agency's IT systems.

Ramaswamy leaving DOGE

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"It was my honor to have assisted in the development of DOGE. I'm confident Elon and his team will successfully simplify government processes," Ramaswamy wrote.

According to President Trump's executive order, DOGE will be a "temporary organization" that will focus on "advancing the President's agenda for the next 18 months." The order states that DOGE will cease to exist on July 4, 2026.

On Monday, Trump stated DOGE will have approximately twenty individuals working in its office.

This decision will save the agency approximately $285 million over the course of a five-year period in infrastructure costs.