Federal Agencies Push Back Against Musk’s Demand for Employee Accountability

Key federal agencies, including the FBI, State Department, and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with Elon Musk’s latest demand that federal workers explain what they accomplished last week—or risk losing their jobs. This directive has sparked a new level of chaos and confusion within the federal workforce, just a month after President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began fulfilling his campaign promises to shrink the government.

Administration officials scrambled over the weekend to interpret Musk’s unusual mandate, which reportedly has Trump’s backing despite some lawmakers arguing it is illegal. Unions are threatening to sue, demanding the administration rescind the request.

Some officials are resisting, while others are encouraging their workers to comply. At some agencies, conflicting guidance has been issued. For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services initially instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply, shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. By Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should “pause activities” on the request until noon Monday.

“I’ll be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration’s priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,” Keveney said in an email viewed by The Associated Press.

Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency’s employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: “I have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.”

Musk’s team sent an email to federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline—set in the email as 11:59pm Monday—would lose their job.

Pushback to Musk’s Demand

Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of Musk’s ultimatum, which came just hours after Trump encouraged him on social media to “get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the government through his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Senator John Curtis, R-Utah, was among the members of Trump’s party who had concerns. “If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. … It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., questioned the legal basis the Trump administration would have for dismissing tens of thousands of workers for refusing to heed Musk’s latest demand.

For Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., there was no doubt: “The actions he’s taking are illegal,” he said on Face the Nation.

Trump mocked the affected workers in a meme today on his social media network. The post featured a cartoon character writing a list of accomplishments from the previous week led by, “Cried about Trump,” “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” and “Read some emails.”

Some Federal Agencies Aren’t Complying

Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, an outspoken Trump ally, instructed bureau employees to ignore Musk’s request, at least for now.

“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

Ed Martin, the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he responded to Musk’s order. “Let me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,” Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management. “Please make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion. We can do this.”

The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply. “DOGE and Elon are doing great work. Historic. We are happy to participate,” Martin wrote at that time.

Officials at the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security were more consistent. Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Nagy wrote in an email.

Pentagon leadership instructed employees to “pause” any response to Musk’s team as well. “The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” according to an email from Jules Hurst, deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses.”

The Homeland Security Department told employees that “no reporting action from you is needed at this time” and that agency managers would respond, according to an email from R.D. Alles, deputy undersecretary for management.

Job Cuts Across the Government

Everett Kelley, president of the 800,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter today to the administration that it should rescind Musk’s request and apologize to all federal workers by the end of the day.

“We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this plainly unlawful email absent other lawful direction,” he wrote, describing Musk as “unelected and unhinged.”

Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce—either by being fired or through a “deferred resignation” offer. There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected.

Musk today called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.” “The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” Musk wrote on X. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”

He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have falsely claimed in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.

Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including probationary civilian workers at the Pentagon and all but a fraction of US Agency for International Development staffers through cuts or leave.

The situation underscores the broader challenges facing federal agencies as they navigate the complex landscape of cost-cutting measures and employee accountability. The pushback from federal agencies highlights the need for clear, consistent, and legally sound directives to avoid further confusion and potential legal battles.