Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative sought this week to gain access to the congressional office which fields and manages complaints about discrimination, harassment, accessibility and other workplace issues, according to three congressional employees granted anonymity to describe the sensitive situation.
The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights is the third legislative branch agency that the Trump administration has recently attempted to access. Last week saw a purge of officials at the Library of Congress, followed by the attempted installation of new library leaders, and DOGE attempted this week to place a downsizing team at the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog that roots out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
DOGE officials reached out to the workplace rights office this week, but staff at the OCWR denied their request to assign a team there, the three congressional employees said. The workplace rights office is a legislative branch agency that is not subject to executive branch oversight or White House directives.
It is housed in the Adams Building of the Library of Congress and shares data servers with the library. The leadership of the library is in limbo after President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and the head of the copyright office last week and attempted to install hand-picked replacements.
The OWCR is tasked with monitoring safety, health and accessibility across workplaces on Capitol Hill, including hearing complaints of sexual or racial harassment and guiding victims through a confidential reporting process. The Associated Press first reported on the DOGE request.
An overhaul of the agency during the #MeToo movement included shifted financial responsibility for harassment settlements from taxpayers to the members themselves, who now have 90 days to repay the amount of the award before their salary is garnished.
“A lot of this DOGE stuff was never about saving money, it’s all about political retribution,” said former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who led that overhaul as a member of the House Administration Committee. “Some enterprising little DOGE kid goes in there, thinking they’re going to find out stuff about Democrats. Well, I’ve got news for you, that kind of stuff is pretty bipartisan.”
Highly sensitive and confidential data is held by the OCWR not only concerning official complaints filed by employees of Congress and congressional agencies, but also information about inquiries that did not result in a formal case.
Beyond the potential breach of separation of powers, Comstock warned of potentially devastating consequences of DOGE accessing the agency.
“If this is in any way exposing a victim’s information without their permission, that would be the most egregious thing that I would see in this scenario,” she said in an interview Friday.
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