In the past few weeks, billions of dollars of federal spending has been cut by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), which is a new “branch” of the United States government supposedly headed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. 

ABC reports that over 20,000 federal employees have been fired since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, and even more accepted an offer to resign with a guaranteed seven months of pay and benefits. Many of the firings have been in the Department of Education, which was already the government cabinet agency with the smallest workforce. Other agencies hit hard include the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

These immense changes are part of the government’s new model of efficiency. But DOGE is problematic in the way that what is truly going on is being obscured from the public eye. 

Lawyers at the recent federal hearing couldn’t answer who was in charge of DOGE. Paul McCormick, a social studies teacher at Delta Middle School, explained why that was highly concerning. 

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“DOGE is just a creation of the Trump Administration, and if it’s actually making consequential decisions, there’s a problem with the appointments clause in the Constitution,” McCormick said. “In order to actually have a legitimate federal agency that makes decisions, a federal agency has to be approved by the Senate. So approved by the people of the United States through the Senate.”

DOGE is rapidly gaining power. On Feb. 26, Trump signed an executive order to empower it and Musk further, allowing them to withhold payment from federal agencies.

“If this agency is making decisions, it may actually not have legitimacy—legal legitimacy and authority to be making these decisions. And so, you’ve seen some judges allow these firings and and recension of money. But then you’ve seen other judges say, ‘Wait a minute … if this is an agency actually making decisions, then it has to go through Congress,’” McCormick said.“We can’t end-run Congress. There’s a reason we have checks and balances and co-equal branches of government.” 

These changes impact millions of American citizens, and their families specifically. There are several federal agencies based in State College, and Penn State University is struggling due to government cuts of money intended for academic grants. Local economies, maybe even our State College one, will feel this impact.

“A local community’s economy could be heavily dependent on the income that federal workers have, and can spend. And then an individual family. How does a family support itself without income, maybe for both parents or income for just one parent. Do they move? What do they do for health care now? Now, do they have to sell their home? So it’s pretty profound. Do they have enough for retirement?” McCormick said.

Beyond just the U.S., the federal agencies and funding programs help people all over the world. 

“[Federal agencies] help a lot of people. My parents personally work [with USAID] in Africa, so it helps a lot. So one of them does, they take leftover food from grocery stores and places in the U.S. and donate it to kids and people in need in Madagascar,” freshman Geneve LeMay said. 

Some of these essential programs are planned to be cut down by more than 90%. 

To truly create efficient services that harbor global dependance, firing the workers that keep our country functioning and cutting the funds for powerful causes is not the way to go.