Leading Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee are putting renewed pressure on the nation’s space agency after a NASA official told them that a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency would be assigned to the agency, but stopped short of providing the identity of the employee or how their access to key systems would be policed.
The newly released correspondence from NASA comes in response to a Feb. 6-dated letter sent to the agency by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. — ranking member of the full panel — and Valerie Foushee, D-N.C., ranking member of the panel’s Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.
The two lawmakers’ initial missive asked if any DOGE personnel had been deployed to the agency and to detail whether or not they accessed or attempted to access any systems maintained by NASA or those containing personally identifiable information.
In a Feb.13-dated letter responding to Lofgren’s and Foushee’s questions, the space agency said DOGE “has identified an individual who will be employed by NASA,” although it did not name the staffer who would be assigned to them from the cost-cutting unit.
“As such, he will have all necessary access to NASA owned or managed resources as required for his duties, in compliance with all laws and regulations regarding the protection of IT resources and classified information,” wrote Marc Hone, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.
In a subsequent response sent on Friday, Lofgren, Foushee and Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio — ranking member of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee — said it was critical for the space agency to disclose the identity of the DOGE employee.
“NASA failed to disclose this information in its response to the Committee,” they wrote. “But there is no legitimate rationale for withholding this individual’s identity, given his status as an employee of the agency who is likely to possess substantial authority over agency functions.”
The lawmakers also noted concerns about some of the publicly identified DOGE personnel, a number of whom are under the age of 25. Some of these individuals, they wrote, have faced questions about social media posts or been previously fired for leaking company secrets. They said the ambiguity over the identity of the DOGE representative exacerbated additional concerns “about the lack of clarity surrounding the DOGE Agent’s access to sensitive proprietary data from NASA contractors.”
Given Musk’s position as the CEO of SpaceX — which is set to receive billions of dollars from federal contracts — the lawmakers also said that DOGE’s access to NASA’s restricted data raised serious conflict-of-interest questions.
“We fear that NASA’s acknowledgment that the DOGE Agent will possess ‘all necessary access to NASA owned or managed resources as required for his duties’ may, in fact, be an admission that he will have unrestricted access to proprietary data,” their letter said. “If true, this would be a highly disturbing admission.”
The three Democrats asked NASA to provide them with the identity of the assigned DOGE employee by March 7, and to further describe this individual’s level of oversight by agency personnel and detail the guardrails that would be put on sensitive agency information.
The lawmakers’ concerns about DOGE’s activities have been repeatedly echoed in recent weeks. House and Senate Democrats have sent over a dozen letters to agencies this month alone expressing concerns about DOGE’s access to sensitive information and impact on federal operations.
Although the identity of the DOGE staffer assigned to NASA still has not been disclosed, the cost-cutting unit has already started to turn its attention to the space agency.
DOGE has created a verified NASA-focused X — formerly Twitter — account, and posted a message on Feb. 16 asking the public to contact the account “with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud, and abuse at NASA.”
As agencies work to comply with guidance from the Trump administration to let go of probationary employees and downsize their workforces, NASA was expected to face steep cuts in personnel. Some reports said that NASA was expected to lay off roughly 10% of its total workforce.
The space agency said on Thursday, however, that it worked with the Office of Personnel Management to limit reductions to poor performing probationary employees as a result of its overall mission needs. The agency also noted that 5% of its workforce have already accepted the Trump administration’s early retirement offer.
