Rep. Van Hoyle said that she doesn’t agree with the work Elon Musk is doing.
A Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Feb. 5 that she is leaving the chamber’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus.
Rep. Van Doyle (D-Ore.) said that she joined the caucus to make sure there was a voice in the room for working people that would work on protecting people’s benefits while streamlining government. She said she believes many others joined the caucus with the same goals.
However, Doyle said on Wednesday that she disagrees with the work that Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, and his employees are doing.
She accused Musk of “risking the delivery of Social Security payments” and “corruptly accessing Americans’ personal data at the Department of Treasury.” She also expressed opposition to the buyout offer made to government employees.
“As a result, I have made the decision to leave the DOGE Caucus,” Doyle
said in a statement.
The caucus was founded in 2024 to serve as a partner between Congress and DOGE, which was established with President Donald Trump’s blessing and is examining ways to make the government more efficient.
“The nation expects sweeping common-sense reform, and the DOGE Caucus will pave the way for the House of Representatives to streamline government operations and to save taxpayer money,”
said Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), co-chair of the caucus.
A DOGE Caucus was also established in the Senate by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who
said that it would “carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans.”
Musk, named by Trump as a special government employee, and one of the richest people in the world, has led efforts that include closing down or drastically downsizing the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. His team has also been reviewing government payment systems,
sparking a lawsuit.
Democrats have increasingly said that Musk and his team are going too far. This week, they
introduced legislation that would limit DOGE’s ability to access the payment data.
“The richest man in the world doesn’t deserve unchecked access to your Social Security and Medicare,” Rep Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
said on social media platform X. “We’re working to stop him.”
Musk has said that his team is focused on rooting out government waste.
Several other Democrats are still members of the DOGE Caucus.
“The caucus is about focusing on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. I joined in good faith and to make sure that we have a voice at the table to protect my constituents,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), one of them,
told Politico recently. “The illegal activity we’ll handle through the litigation process.”
