House Narrowly Passes Clawback Package; DOGE After Musk; Dueling Rulings on Data Access

Stories Mentioned in this Roundup

1. House GOP narrowly approves $9.4 billion package of DOGE cuts

   CNN: The U.S. House narrowly passed a $9.4 billion “rescissions” package formalizing cuts made by DOGE, clawing back funding totaling over $8 billion in foreign aid and more than $1 billion for public broadcasting.  
   

2. House approves DOGE-inspired cuts to foreign aid, PBS, NPR

   Washington Post: The Senate is also expected to approve the package by a party-line vote in the coming weeks. By law, Congress has 45 days from the time Trump submitted the request to pass it into law. That timeline allows the Senate to bypass a Democratic filibuster.
   

3. A diminished DOGE reels from the departure of the ‘Dogefather,’ Elon Musk

   Washington Post: Cabinet officials and senior staffers across the Trump administration are reclaiming power from Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, a trend that began long before the billionaire’s relationship with President Donald Trump exploded in public acrimony days after Musk formally left his White House post.
   

4. After His Trump Blowup, Musk May Be Out. But DOGE Is Just Getting Started.

   New York Times: Elon Musk’s blowup with President Trump may have doomed Washington’s most potent partnership, but the billionaire’s signature cost-cutting project has become deeply embedded in Mr. Trump’s administration and could be there to stay.
   

5. Elon Musk's Zombie Rule Lives On Despite His Departure From DOGE

   Daily Beast: Federal workers are still sending largely pointless emails detailing the five things they did the previous week, even though the mastermind behind the idea, Elon Musk, has left his government role.
   

6. The DOGE 100: Musk Is Out, but More Than 100 of His Followers Remain to Implement Trump’s Blueprint

   ProPublica: In an effort launched shortly after DOGE’s creation, ProPublica has now identified more than 100 private-sector executives, engineers and investors from Silicon Valley, big American banks and tech startups enlisted to help President Donald Trump dramatically downsize the U.S. government.
   

7. New DOGE, New Tricks
   Slate What Next Podcast: Elon Musk has ridden off into the sunset acrimoniously (maybe), but the Department of Government Efficiency is just getting started. Will DOGE continue wildly cutting or is something even more chaotic coming next?
   

8. Rep. Roy Introduces Legislation to Make DOGE Permanent

   Office of Chip Roy: Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced legislation aimed at making DOGE a permanent fixture within the federal government.
   

9. Senators Warn DOGE’s Social Security Administration Work Could Break Benefits

   Wired: In a new letter addressed to SSA commissioner Frank Bisignano, senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden say that DOGE’s plans to “hastily upgrade” Social Security IT systems could disrupt the delivery of benefits or result in mass data losses.
   

10. Supreme Court allows DOGE to access Social Security records

    FedScoop: The unsigned opinion provides the Elon Musk-associated DOGE with even more access to sensitive government information to fulfill its mission of making government more efficient. Just last month, the team also gained access to payment systems at the Department of Treasury. 
    

11. DOGE’s Supreme Court victory is a huge loss for Americans’ privacy

    The Hill: Roberts found that it is DOGE — not the American people — that would irreparably suffer if the legal questions are given time to percolate on appeal. DOGE gets the goods immediately. If the plaintiffs manage to secure a ruling affirming the district court on appeal many months from now, thus undoing the Supreme Court’s stay, the damage will already have been done. The data is already breached. There is no longer a remedy.
    

12. Judge finds OPM broke law in granting data access to DOGE

    Federal News Network: “The plaintiffs have shown that the defendants disclosed OPM records to individuals who had no legal right of access to those records,” [Judge Denise] Cote wrote. “In doing so, the defendants violated the Privacy Act and departed from cybersecurity standards that they are obligated to follow. This was a breach of law and of trust. Tens of millions of Americans depend on the Government to safeguard records that reveal their most private and sensitive affairs.”
    

13. White House security staff warned Musk’s Starlink is a security risk

    Washington Post: Elon Musk’s team at the U.S. DOGE Service and allies in the Trump administration ignored White House communications experts worried about potential security breaches when DOGE personnel installed Musk’s Starlink internet service in the complex earlier this year.