A high-stakes workplace accountability measure gains momentum as former President Donald Trump supports tech billionaire Elon Musk's controversial federal employee verification system.
According to the New York Post, Trump endorsed Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative requiring all federal employees to submit weekly work accomplishment reports by Monday night or face termination.
The measure aims to identify potential payroll fraud and non-existent employees within the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management distributed emails requesting approximately five bullet points detailing each worker's accomplishments from the previous week, with responses due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.
Several key government departments have instructed their staff to disregard the directive. The Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Energy, along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI, have chosen not to comply with the mandatory reporting requirement.
The FBI's leadership emphasized their commitment to following established internal review processes. They directed employees to pause any responses to the DOGE initiative until further notice.
Musk maintained his stance on the reporting requirement despite departmental resistance. He warned that employees who fail to take the directive seriously would soon find themselves seeking employment elsewhere.
Federal unions, businesses, veterans, and conservation organizations have filed an updated lawsuit against Musk in San Francisco federal court. The legal action characterizes the mass firing threat as one of the most extensive employment frauds in American history.
The White House has defended the initiative through deputy press secretary Anna Kelly. She criticized the lawsuit as frivolous, suggesting that employees could have completed their work summaries multiple times instead of pursuing legal action.
Trump expressed during an Oval Office meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron his support for the measure, stating:
What he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?' If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person, or they aren't working.
The DOGE initiative has already resulted in substantial workforce changes. More than 65,000 federal employees have accepted buyout offers, while an additional 20,000 workers have been terminated or placed on track for layoff.
Musk's team continues to pursue their goal of overhauling and downsizing the federal government. The DOGE director stated on X that the email requirement serves as a basic pulse check on the federal workforce.
The president claimed that DOGE investigations have uncovered hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. Trump suggested that non-responses to the work verification email could indicate either non-existent employees or deceased individuals' identities being used to collect paychecks.
The Department of Government Efficiency's unprecedented email directive represents a significant shift in federal employee oversight, supported by both Trump and Musk despite agency resistance. The initiative has sparked legal challenges from various organizations while already resulting in substantial workforce reductions through buyouts and terminations. As the Monday deadline approaches, the outcome of this controversial measure could reshape the federal employment landscape and potentially expose fraudulent practices within the government payroll system.
