The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has sued the U.S. federal government for more transparency on the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to cut staff and spending at environmental agencies, including NOAA.
The lawsuit comes amid a flurry of activity from Elon Musk-led DOGE, which has quickly gained access to federal agencies and begun cutting spending that does not align with the aims of U.S. President Donald Trump. DOGE gained access to NOAA in February and has since laid off hundreds of workers. The federal government has also laid off workers at the Environmental Protection Agency and dismantled USAID, an agency that had supported environmental improvements in foreign fisheries.
“Elon Musk and his hacker minions are tearing apart the federal agencies that protect our public lands, keep our air and water clean, and conserve our most cherished wildlife. The public has every right to know why they’re waging this cruel war on our environment,” CBD Government Affairs Director Brett Hartl said in a statement. “Musk has shown that he can and will destroy a federal agency in a single weekend. If his deranged antics are allowed to continue, we might never be able to fix the damage to America’s environment.”
CBD claims that the DOGE teams being set up at each federal agency by the Trump administration are not in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), a law that implements transparency requirements for advisory committees established by the president. According to the lawsuit, none of the DOGE teams have publicly disclosed any required documents.
“In the absence of compliance with FACA’s openness requirements, the public has no way of ascertaining how or whether defendants have taken appropriate steps to ensure that the DOGE teams will remain fairly balanced and whether Mr. Musk has been using, or will use, his control over the DOGE Teams to support the private interests of himself and the others that stand to profit from DOGE’s work,” CBD said in its lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to rule that the DOGE teams are in violation of federal transparency laws and forbid federal agencies from working with those teams until they comply.
CBD has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the job descriptions and workplans of the hundreds of NOAA employees laid off by DOGE, claiming that the staff cuts have crippled the agency’s capacity to protect marine species like whales and sea turtles, as required by law.
“The incredible ocean animals that Americans adore are in serious danger as Musk plays power games with hard-working marine scientists,” CBD Oceans Director Miyoko Sakashita said in a statement. “Unbelievably, they fired an orca-saving employee of the year, and the public deserves to know what other animals, marine sanctuaries, and conservation programs are paying the price for DOGE’s cuts. Getting rid of the experts carrying out important conservation work has devastating and unlawful consequences for both wildlife and people.”
While DOGE has not publicly disclosed how many NOAA Fisheries employees were affected by the layoffs, reports from across the country have identified multiple fisheries-related employees who were laid off, including a scallop fishery observer, a management specialist focused on salmon stocks in Alaska, and a Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based biologist. The government has also disbanded the Marine and Coastal Area-based Management Advisory Committee and the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee.
CBD’s Freedom of Information Act request could help the fishing industry better understand how the layoffs will impact their sector.
