I 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 1535 To repeal President Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order titled ‘‘Establishing and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ ’’, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY24, 2025 Mr. M IN(for himself, Ms. STANSBURY, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. PRESSLEY, and Ms. C ROCKETT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Oversight and Government Reform A BILL To repeal President Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025, Ex- ecutive Order titled ‘‘Establishing and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’’’, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bolstering America’s 4 Democracy and Demanding Oversight and Government 5 Ethics Act’’ or the ‘‘BAD DOGE Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7 The Congress finds the following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 1535 IH (1) The United States DOGE Service (in this 1 section referred to as ‘‘USDS’’) (formerly known as 2 the United States Digital Service) and the U.S. 3 DOGE Service Temporary Organization (in this sec-4 tion, referred to as ‘‘USDSTO’’) created by Execu-5 tive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 8441; relating to es-6 tablishing and implementing the President’s ‘‘De-7 partment of Government Efficiency’’) (in this section 8 referred to as ‘‘the DOGE Executive Order’’) are 9 operating beyond the scope of their authorities and 10 organizational purposes. 11 (2) The DOGE Executive Order specifically cre-12 ates the USDSTO as a ‘‘temporary organization’’ in 13 accordance with section 3161 of title 5, United 14 States Code, which limits the purpose of such an or-15 ganization to ‘‘performing a specific study or other 16 project’’. 17 (3) The DOGE Executive Order specifies that 18 the USDSTO shall be headed by the USDS Admin-19 istrator, who is to be appointed by the Office of 20 Management and Budget, and shall be dedicated to 21 advancing the President’s DOGE agenda. 22 (4) This DOGE agenda is described in the 23 DOGE Executive Order as a ‘‘Software Moderniza-24 tion Initiative’’ led by the USDS Administrator to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 1535 IH ‘‘improve the quality and efficiency of government- 1 wide software, network infrastructure, and informa-2 tion technology (IT) systems’’. 3 (5) The DOGE Executive Order additionally 4 specifies that USDS shall adhere to rigorous data 5 protection standards. 6 (6) In fact, both the USDS and USDSTO are 7 being led by Elon Musk, who was not appointed as 8 USDS Administrator. 9 (7) There are no government records indicating 10 that Mr. Musk has any formal role with the Federal 11 Government, or that he is complying with any disclo-12 sure or conflict-of-interest requirements that would 13 apply to Federal employees or officials. 14 (8) The White House subsequently indicated 15 that Mr. Musk is a ‘‘special government employee’’ 16 but has not produced any evidence that he was re-17 tained in this role, or that he is complying with any 18 rules or laws that would be required for a Federal 19 employee or the USDS Administrator. 20 (9) According to numerous media reports and 21 first-hand accounts, including social media posts and 22 press statements from Mr. Musk himself, under the 23 leadership of Mr. Musk, the USDSTO has taken ac-24 tions that go far beyond what the DOGE Executive 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 1535 IH Order authorized either USDS or USDSTO to do, 1 including freezing payments to different Federal 2 agencies and programs, acquiring personnel informa-3 tion for all Federal employees from the Office of 4 Personnel Management (in this section referred to 5 as ‘‘OPM’’), gaining control over and access to the 6 Department of Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Services 7 (in this section referred to as ‘‘BFS’’) Federal pay-8 ments system and its associated data, locking Fed-9 eral employees out of their computer systems, offer-10 ing Federal employees a buyout, and ostensibly ter-11 minating Federal agencies, bureaus, and programs 12 created by and funded by Congress. 13 (10) These actions are inconsistent with the 14 provisions of the DOGE Executive Order and also 15 with what a ‘‘temporary organization’’ is statutorily 16 permitted to do. 17 (11) Mr. Musk’s actions and authorities also 18 grossly exceed what he might be permitted to do as 19 a ‘‘special government employee’’. 20 (12) The USDS and the USDSTO, under the 21 direction of Mr. Musk, are repeatedly violating a 22 number of Federal statutes and provisions of the 23 United States Constitution. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 1535 IH (13) USDS, USDSTO, and Mr. Musk have re-1 portedly gained access to OPM’s personnel files, 2 gained control and access to BFS’s payments sys-3 tems and associated data, sent a buyout offer to all 4 Federal employees, attempted to dismantle the 5 United States Agency for International Development 6 and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 7 without congressional approval, and removed public 8 health information from the Centers for Disease 9 Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Ad-10 ministration websites, among other things. 11 (14) These actions violate the Constitution, in-12 cluding Article I, section 1 (Separation of Powers), 13 Article I, section 7 (Presentment and Appropriations 14 Clause), Article I, section 8 (Spending Clause), and 15 Article II, section 3 (Take Care Clause). 16 (15) These actions also violate a broad array of 17 Federal statutes, including— 18 (A) the Congressional Budget and Im-19 poundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 601 20 et seq.); 21 (B) chapter 15 of title 31, United States 22 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Anti-Deficiency 23 Act’’); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 1535 IH (C) section 6329a through 6329c of title 5, 1 United States Code (commonly known as the 2 ‘‘Administrative Leave Act of 2016’’); 3 (D) chapter 36 of title 44, United States 4 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘E-Government 5 Act of 2002’’); 6 (E) section 552a of title 5, United States 7 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Privacy Act of 8 1974’’); 9 (F) subchapter II of chapter 35 of title 44, 10 United States Code (commonly known as the 11 ‘‘Federal Information Security Modernization 12 Act of 2014’’); 13 (G) the Foreign Affairs Reform and Re-14 structuring Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6501 et 15 seq.); 16 (H) chapter 10 of title 5, United States 17 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Federal Advi-18 sory Committee Act’’); 19 (I) chapter 41 of title 44, United States 20 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Paperwork Re-21 duction Act of 1995’’); 22 (J) numerous Federal ethics regulations; 23 and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 1535 IH (K) various provisions of subchapter II of 1 chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code (com-2 monly known as the ‘‘Administrative Procedure 3 Act’’). 4 SEC. 3. REPEAL OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 14158. 5 Executive Order 14158 (90 Fed. Reg. 8441; relating 6 to establishing and implementing the President’s ‘‘Depart-7 ment of Government Efficiency’’) shall have no force or 8 effect. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:44 Mar 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1535.IH H1535 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB