‘Second American Revolution’: The team behind DOGE’s government overhaul

CNN — One is a 23-year-old software engineer from Nebraska who helped decipher an ancient scroll buried for centuries. Some of the most pointed concerns were summed up in a letter this week from Democratic senators to the White House: “No information has been provided to Congress or the public as to who has been formally hired under DOGE, under what authority or regulations DOGE is operating, or how DOGE is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans’ personal information.” Although the slate of software engineers in their early 20s working under DOGE appear to lack government experience, their resumes detail impressive accomplishments in the tech field. A DOGE employee has also been reviewing operations and contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency that includes the nation’s largest integrated health care system, according to a VA spokesperson who said the employee “will not have access” to veterans’ data. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, filed an emergency lawsuit this week against DOGE amid anticipation that it would be heading for the Department of Labor, an attempt to stop Musk’s team “from unlawfully accessing the DOL’s systems and information.” Workers and supporters protest against the Department of Government Efficiency in front of the US Department of Labor on February 5, in Washington, DC. Krause and Elez – designated as “special government employees” by the executive branch – obtained access to the computer system that’s used by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service to cut more than $5 trillion in checks for the federal government each year, according to lawyers for the Justice Department at a court hearing on Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns over their access.