A Government Accountability Office report released in late September found that several executive branch agencies refused to fully cooperate with investigators examining Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The report, titled "DOGE: Congress and the Public Lack Assurance That Systems and Data Were Protected at Multiple Agencies," said the CFPB, VA, Education Department, NOAA, SEC, and SBA each resisted the probe in some way. The CFPB, which was gutted by DOGE and the Trump administration, sent the GAO a letter accusing investigators of bias and alleging the report was misleading.
According to the GAO and a Democratic congressional aide, agencies refused to name which DOGE operatives had been embedded with them, even when those names were already public. The VA and SBA did not respond to requests for information needed to determine what access DOGE team members had to their systems. Separately, Senator Ron Wyden said the Commerce Department is refusing to cooperate with a GAO request tied to his investigation of AI-related export controls.
The GAO is Congress's primary investigative body, but it cannot enforce laws or prosecute. Agencies are legally required to cooperate with its requests, yet the report shows they did not. Democrats, who may take control of the House and possibly the Senate, are preparing to use subpoena power and contempt proceedings. But as University of Houston law professor Emily Berman noted, in a political environment where officials feel no shame, Congress may need to resort to withholding money or going to court to compel cooperation. The Democratic aide said the level of obstruction was "surprising" and that agencies showed "a complete lack of willingness to kind of get to yes."