Do we understand the complete set of DOGE objectives?
DOGE is building a ‘master database’ of sensitive information, top Oversight Democrat says
Natalie Alms reports:
The Department of Government Efficiency is building a single, cross-agency database of sensitive information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies, according to new, whistleblower-informed oversight on Capitol Hill.
The effort is “unprecedented,” said a Thursday letter the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., sent to SSA’s watchdog, whom he’s asking to open up an investigation.
DOGE’s work may run afoul of privacy law, the letter said. Experts that Nextgov/FCW spoke with agreed.
Already, associates of the government-slashing initiative led by Elon Musk have accessed sensitive data across numerous agencies even as federal employees object, resign or are fired in the process.
There are at least fourteen lawsuits alleging violations of federal privacy protections across agencies, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology.
Now, the DOGE team is building a single, cross-agency master database by combining sensitive information from various agencies, according to whistleblower information Democrats on the House’s oversight committee say they’ve received.
“It’s terrifying,” said John Davisson, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which sued the Office of Personnel Management and Treasury Department in February over personnel records and payment system data that was taken.
Read more at at NextGov.
(Note) Everything is so politicized these days that it’s really hard to know what reporting is accurate or credible and what has been distorted by political biases — Dissent.
Unintended consequences?
https://www.ft.com/content/6b041c11-fa31-4734-823e-e802c9d365f3?accessToken=zwAGM21fsEuokc9rBBwR-jFHNNOCPugCydNl8w.MEYCIQCEHC7M60_iE96sNrEc4EsBJFvMAumSCin3QfwNJS9BYgIhAMcT79FQiAPDzUblei5ARrp3oqkVpEYn7Ng66OhpIp-U&sharetype=gift&token=ba4f2dff-a8e5-4f73-9982-10824cbb314e
What would a US tariff on chips look like?
The US government will be “taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN”, President Donald Trump recently declared. Given his repeated promises to impose a tariff on imported chips, we must assume some action is coming. But what type, and to what end?
According to trade data, the US imports around $30bn in chips annually, largely from south-east Asia. Would tariffs lead companies to replace these imports with domestically made chips? Not necessarily. The US has hardly any of the labour-intensive assembly and packaging capabilities that have been offshored to Asia since the 1960s.
For that reason, if the US does impose a tariff on semiconductors, there is a chance that companies will respond by doing even more manufacturing offshore to offset the increased costs. Instead of importing chips and putting them into domestically manufactured appliances or cars, suppliers might move the entire process overseas. These finished products would still face a tariff, but at least the manufacturing would be low-cost.
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