Nonprofit groups filed three lawsuits against President Trump’s administration minutes after he took office on Monday, arguing that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency was violating laws that require federal advisory committees to be open to the public and to include a diversity of viewpoints.
Mr. Trump’s new “department” is not actually an agency of government but rather an informal effort to slash spending and bureaucracy that is led by two wealthy supporters, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Those two have said they will work outside government and advise officials inside the new Trump administration.
That setup violates the law, the nonprofits said in their lawsuits.
The 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act says that committees of outside government advisers must be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented,” and that they must make their records available to the public.
The lawsuits say that Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy’s effort meets neither of those requirements. They say its leaders all share one viewpoint: that the size and cost of government should be cut drastically.
All the suits asked federal judges to stop the cost-cutting effort until it complies with the law.
One of Monday’s lawsuits was filed by a coalition that includes the American Federation of Government Employees, a union of federal workers, as well as a watchdog group called State Democracy Defenders Fund. In the other case, the plaintiffs include the liberal good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the American Federation of Teachers.
“The question every American should be asking is ‘What are they hiding?’” said Skye Perryman, the chief executive of a legal nonprofit called Democracy Forward, which is representing the second group of plaintiffs. “DOGE must not be allowed to operate in the shadows.”
The third suit was filed by a nonprofit called National Security Counselors, which represents federal whistle-blowers.
Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the operation, did not immediately respond to questions.
