The Efficiency Department of the Government-AGencies to reduce the cost of Trump’s administration, led by the owner of billionaire Elon Musk-old, has received access to leave of leave, and has received access to sensitive federal payment systems and charges the closure of federal agencies.
Return against DogeAs he called, he was fast, because the legislators and the public ask if Musk can reduce, restructure or eliminate agencies approved and funded by Congress.
Chuck Schumer’s minority leader, for New York, wrote on the X 3 February: “The unprecedented man in the shadows is carried out by a hostile takeover of the Federal Government. Doge is not a real government agency. Doga has no authority to make consumption decisions. Doge has no authority to exclude programs or neglect the federal law. Doge’s behavior cannot be allowed to fit. “
The unexplained Government of the shadow carries out a hostile takeover of the Federal Government.
Doge is not a real government agency.
Doga has no authority to make consumption decisions.
Doge has no authority to exclude programs or neglect the federal law.
Dogen’s behavior cannot be …– Chuck Schumer (@senschumer) 3. February 2025
At a press conference the next day, Schumer said the idea that Doga was looking illegally “is not debatable. This is an indisputable fact.”
The courts will officially decide whether it is indisputable or not.
Since this has not happened yet, we asked the White House in which the constitutional or law prescribed by Doga operates. The White House in the statement quoted neither special laws nor constitutional provisions. In it, they said, “Those who run this mission with Elon male do this completely in accordance with the Federal Law, appropriate security approvals and as employees of relevant agencies, not external advisers or entities.”
Here we looked at Schumer’s statements about Doge and his status and powers within the United States Government in more detail.
Legal scientists and experts in government surgery said they saw a little to the Constitution or US Law to support the executive branch to act alone to cancel what Congress approved and funded.
“This is a question that has a very clear answer: only Congress and Congress have the authority to bring the measures of approved funds,” said Michael Gerhardt, professor of the University of North Carolina. “The President does not have a one -sided authority to exclude the costs or instrumentality funded by Congress, without the approval of the congress.”
Is Doge Rights Government Agency?
Doge is not a conventional government agency; Congress usually creates with mission and fixed amount of financing. In contrast, Doge’s budget and staff are mostly mysteries.
Trump’s administration has determined this Executive command January 20, 2025.
The command is said to be led by Dogea and that her business will stop her business on July 4, 2026. The command also establishes “Doge teams” of at least four people within each federal agency.
The White House said that Musk was a “special government employee”, a decade of an old government category for someone working 130 days or less during the year. Special Government employees may be paid or unpaid – it is unclear to which of these categories it is one of which one comes into – and must ensure financial publication and adhere to ethical rules, including not involving themselves in questions in which they have financial interests (Musk companies, including Spacex and Tesla, received at least $ 15.4 billion in state contracts in the past decade, the New York Times reported.)
Is Doge’s authority make consumption decisions?
The legal experts with whom we interviewed were suspicious that Doge legally reduced the consumption that Congress had already applied and signed by the President.
One key obstacle to Dogeu is the Constitution, especially Article 1, which establishes Congress and empowers a legislative branch by appropriate means. “Money should not be drawn from the treasury, but as a result of the approved funds made by law,” it is said.
On top of that, the Congress brought, and the presidents signed laws to confirm this principle. In 1974, the law on the control of the burglary of the 1974 has set a detailed procedure for what the president can, and cannot do when he does not agree on whether to spend the money that Congress has approved.
That law says that if the executive wants to cancel the consumption, it must propose a cut, known as a “refusal”. Consumption cannot be paused for more than 45 days because legislators are considering cuts.
There are “main questions with teashed means approved and applied if they do not follow the insertion control law,” said Bill Hoagland, a senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Center for Politics and a long -time Assistant Republika Senate.
The Supreme Court has blocked the executive in recent years to exceed its congress authorized authority, such as President Joe Biden The search for the forgiveness of the debt of the student loan.
“If the Congress told the department or agency to regulate, I can,” said Professor of the University of Stetson Louis J Virelli III. “If Congress isn’t, then I can’t.”
Usually, the Office for Management and Budget and the Ministry of Justice assesses the executive commands, after the proceedings of President John F Kennedy set in the executive order, said Steven Smith, political scientist of Arizona State University. “This procedure provides an overview of the proposed executive orders that include their constitutionality and legality,” Smith said. But given the speed of Trump’s command on Doge, which was signed the day he swore, and the staff of staff in the Federal Government, Smith said he had not seen the signs that Trump had followed this longtime, thoughtful process.
In the meantime, Trump’s administration also requested the right to insert the funds – that is, to refuse to spend a congress approved money – and its reverse, legal experts said. By offer binds to millions of federal employeesWith those who accept that they receive a salary up to 30 September, the administration committed to pay the money Congress has not yet applied. Currently, federal funding lasts on March 14, but promise to pay outside of it, “when there is no legal basis, it is illegal,” Virelli said.
Does Doge have authorized to close programs or ignore the Federal Law?
Legal experts also believe that the same legal justification – the Constitution of assigning the authority of the purse to Congress and subsequent laws would prevent Dogea from closing the entire agency.
According to existing laws, such as the Act on Transportation Control, “there are certainly cases where the president could stop special payments for certain reasons or for short periods,” said Frank about Bowman III, a professor of the right to Missouri. “But it is absolutely clear that the president cannot constitutionally, unilaterally close the entire congress created agency and all his programs.” Trump and his appointed work to remove the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Independent status, folding the agency into state department and committed to release most of his employees, and Trump promised to close the education department during the campaign.
“The least mean version of what the administration does is,” let’s play this in the courts and see if we can get approval through the courts. “, Virelli said.” If this is completed as a series of lawsuits in which the administration is trying to expand its powers and the court is to classify everything, it is not beyond the borders of our constitutional democracy. “
But Musk and Dog may move so fast that the court branch would have difficulty stopping, even if the judges wanted, legal experts said.
The administration could win if the lower courts “do not make decisions fast enough,” said Chris Edelson, an American Assistant Professor of the University. It could also win if the judges decide to cancel a longtime precedent, he said. “The Supreme Court saying that the presidents are immune to criminal prosecution for” official acts ” – as an current court did 2024 – “It can also decide that the presidents do not have to adhere to other parts of the Constitution.”
Can Congress stop Doge if he wants? And will it?
Institutionally, the Congress has the most loss, experts agree. But it is not helpless: Congress could bring a law that blocks Doge or at least some of his practices.
During the scandal with Watergate President Richard Nixon, while the Supreme Court moved hard to limit the chairman, “Congress supported the court by crossing him,” Edelson said. “I see no evidence that the congress Republican majority does it.”
For example, Senator Thom Tillis, North Carolina, admitted that some men’s actions could be unconstitutional, but “no one should blow about it,” he told Novins Notus. “This is in line with the Constitution in the strictest sense … but it is not uncommon for the presidents to bend a little where they can spend and where I can stop spending.”
David M Driesen, a professor of rights at Syracuse University, said Tillis’s comparison is defective.
“There is no precedent for denying funds throughout the committee because of a broad disagreement of policy with the law,” Driesen said. “It is a frontal attack on the legislative body of the congress.”
If the legislators do not challenge Doge, by passing new laws or going to court, they risk losing the powers that Congress held for two and a half centuries. Driesen and other legal experts said the judges could consider the lack of congress oppositions as they decide on cases of this issue.
“That should not be important at all in the Constitutional Law,” said Bowman, a law professor. “But I doubt that for some judges, silence could have some weight.”
