At least 21 former staffers of the U.S. Digital Service resigned Tuesday, citing the agency’s takeover by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and a refusal to “dismantle critical public services,” as DOGE carries out large-scale cost-cutting measures and mass layoff efforts.
The employees worked under the U.S. Digital Service before it was renamed the U.S. DOGE Service.
The 21 anonymous staffers wrote a letter announcing their resignation, indicating they would not “use our skills as technologists” to “compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services” (the Associated Press first reported the resignation letter).
The staffers included former engineers, data scientists, product managers and designers who worked under the U.S. Digital Service before it was renamed the Department of Government Efficiency by President Donald Trump.
Employees said they were “subjected” to interviews by people wearing White House visitors’ badges, some of whom would not identify themselves, and questioned the staffers about their “political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other” as the people “demonstrated limited technical ability.”
Representatives from DOGE started integrating the staffers into the newly formed agency on Feb. 16, though they said DOGE’s actions—firing technical experts, mishandling sensitive data and “breaking critical systems”—contradicted the USDS’ mission of delivering “better services to the American people through technology and design.”
About one-third of former USDS employees were fired by DOGE earlier this month, staffers said.
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“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the staffers wrote, adding, “However, it has become clear that we can no longer include those commitments.
This is a developing story.