The leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is advocating for a probe into DOGE’s access to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This request follows an exclusive NPR report about the extraction of sensitive data from the agency. Gerry Connolly, the committee’s Ranking Member, addressed a letter to Acting Inspector General Luiz A. Santos from the Department of Labor and Ruth Blevins, Inspector General at the NLRB, raising suspicions that DOGE could be involved in technological misconduct and unlawful activities.
In his communication, Connolly referenced information from NPR and whistleblower reports acquired by Committee Democrats. The reports indicated that DOGE personnel were attempting to exfiltrate and modify data, using high-level system access to eliminate sensitive data, potentially including confidential corporate and union activity information. Connolly expressed concern over efforts by these individuals to obscure their actions, thwart oversight, and evade accountability.
An official whistleblower disclosure provided to NPR, backed by interviews and internal communication records, revealed concerns from NLRB technical staff regarding the activities of DOGE engineers. These concerns intensified following a noticeable surge in data leaving the agency upon granting access to DOGE personnel.
The whistleblower, Daniel Berulis, revealed in an NPR interview that the full scope of DOGE’s intentions with the data is unknown, but emphasized that the situation appeared ominous. Connolly shared similar apprehensions, pointing out that companies under Elon Musk—such as SpaceX, Tesla, and X—had cases pending with the NLRB and the Department of Labor.
Berulis observed the departure of approximately 10 gigabytes of data from the NLRB’s network, equivalent to a large collection of encyclopedias if printed. This data included information on pending cases and proprietary data from corporate rivals, as well as personal details about union members and employee votes. Such data access is governed by federal laws, including the Privacy Act.
The letter addressed several questions to the inspectors general, inquiring about how DOGE might have violated federal law, details about the NLRB networks accessed by DOGE staff, and the records of DOGE’s involvement with NLRB systems.
NPR further reported that DOGE personnel demanded “tenant owner level” access, which grants comprehensive permissions to read, duplicate, and modify data, as per the whistleblower disclosure to Congress. The report also highlighted deactivation of certain security controls that prevent unauthorized mobile device access, exposure of interfaces to the internet, and manual disabling of internal alerting and monitoring systems.
It also emerged that shortly after the creation of a new DOGE account, an individual from Russia attempted to log in using this account’s credentials. Numerous lawsuits in federal courts across the United States have compelled DOGE to justify its requirement for extensive data access tied to Americans, including Social Security, private medical records, and tax information. However, the Trump administration has not provided consistent explanations, often overlooking cybersecurity and privacy issues.
