With Their Staffs Cut to as Low as 1 Person, Agencies Push Back on DOGE

Overall, the Silicon Valley-inspired “move fast and break things” approach that has defined the agency’s early work is now running up against the political and institutional constraints of Washington. The Inter-American Foundation (IAF), which was at one point reduced on paper to one employee, highlights how the DOGE approach to remaking government can be easier said than done.

The most persistent obstacle in DOGE’s efforts to transform the federal government has been the judiciary. Much like public opinion, courts have been more concerned with how the agency has been acting than why they have been acting that way.

In a cascade of lawsuits, federal courts have pumped the brakes on Mr. Musk’s efforts. Judges have said these kinds of sweeping displays of executive power cannot be exercised so quickly, and maybe not at all.
This is not to say that courts have ruled unilaterally against the Trump administration. But with many cases still ongoing, it’s unclear how much of DOGE’s work will withstand legal scrutiny.

A lawsuit has, for now, kept the IAF intact. Filed by Ms. Aviel, the case turns not on DOGE itself, but on the legality of her termination. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction and temporarily reinstated her as the agency’s president in early April.

“While pursuing government efficiency is a valid goal, it must be carried out lawfully,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan in her order. The Trump administration, she added, has “not done so here.”

A case involving the CFPB raises similar questions. A lawsuit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union argues that the executive branch doesn’t have the authority to dismantle an agency created by Congress. But while the administration has been litigating the case since February, it has also been trying to drastically cut the agency.

If the government’s actions are not paused, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in a March 28 order, it “will eliminate [CFPB] before the Court has the opportunity to decide whether the law permits them to do it.”

The Trump administration has countered that courts do not have the power to unilaterally prevent the executive branch from making changes – including downsizing – to executive branch agencies.