The DOGE Depos: A Blueprint for Congressional DOGE Hearings

DOGE’s testimony and its virality should serve as a blueprint for Democratic oversight efforts.

This article was originally published in Watchdog Weekly. Read it here.

Last week, the depositions of former DOGE agents Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox went viral as they testified about their decimation of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants. The depositions were part of a lawsuit brought by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association that challenged the legality of DOGE’s grant cancellations. The testimony and related documents were revealing: DOGE bros Fox and Cavanaugh plainly admitted that they had

1. relied on ChatGPT, 
2. discriminated based on race and gender in cancellation decisions, 
3. acted as if they as DOGE (rather than NEH leadership) had the ultimate authority to execute cancellations, and 
4. routinely used Signal to evade the Federal Records Act.

In response to the publicization of the depositions and their subsequent virality, the government scrambled to suppress the story, asking the judge to order the plaintiffs to pull down the videos. The request was approved (!), and the videos were taken down from the plaintiff’s YouTube page (though not before they were saved by the good people at Internet Archive and shared widely on social media).

This is perhaps just as revealing as the testimony itself. The administration clearly recognized that the testimony was a damning indictment of DOGE, extending beyond its rampage through NEH to the dozens of agencies they undermined. Should Democrats regain either chamber of Congress after the midterms, they should use their oversight powers to investigate and prosecute DOGE in a way that mirrors the publicity these depositions garnered.

The depositions confirmed what we already knew: DOGE and Elon Musk seemingly operated with a brashness and bravado that indicated they did not expect any consequences for their actions, regardless of their apparent legality. They openly targeted any grants that had any relation whatsoever to minority or LGBTQ issues or history. There were countless stories of DOGE employees accessing sensitive data systems across the government. The White House even had to send a memo telling DOGE to preserve their work-related Signal messages so as to not violate federal records law. 

But with the constant onslaught of scandals coming from the administration, it’s all too easy for one horror to be buried by the next. DOGE can feel like a bygone era. Hearing the DOGE employees themselves try to justify their actions, however, serves as a stark reminder of the chaos they caused and the far right ideology that motivated them.

If you haven’t seen the depositions, I’d encourage you to watch, but I’ll summarize some of the most telling testimony. When asked about a grant for a documentary on Holocaust survivors, Fox said it was an example of DEI because it’s “specifically focused on Jewish culture and amplifying the marginalized voices of the females in that culture. It’s inherently related to D.E.I. for that reason.” Cavanaugh said he flagged a project on the experiences of LGBTQ people in the military “because it explicitly says LGBTQ.” He also said he didn’t regret people losing income due to the cuts because “it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero.” When asked if DOGE did in fact cut the deficit, he admitted, “No, we didn’t.”

It’s clear why these clips went viral—and why the Trump administration wants them suppressed. Now, imagine if every single DOGE agent, from Elon Musk down, were made to answer similar questions under oath before Congress. Democrats must prepare to make this a reality. They cannot afford to operate with the same timidity that plagued oversight efforts in 2024. Should they regain control of the House and/or the Senate in the midterms, Democrats should use Day One of the 120th Congress to subpoena each and every DOGE employee to testify before Congress. 

They should also have a robust communications plan to ensure the testimony receives at least the same amount of publicity as the DOGE depositions. Every employee should be made to answer simple questions about the grants they cut, the technology they used to do so, the data security practices they did or did not employ, and the harms inflicted on communities across the country. 

Testimony about DOGE’s mishandling of Social Security data should be clipped and shared among advocacy groups for retirees. Testimony about DOGE’s closing of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offices, as well as attempted closures of mine safety offices, should be disseminated among unions and local news outlets in mining communities. Victims of fraud and corporate criminality need to hear testimony about the destruction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Polluted communities need to know exactly why a DOGE employee with no scientific expertise thought they did not deserve a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The list goes on and on. For every agency DOGE took over, there is a constituency that wants accountability.

This, of course, will be a tremendous undertaking that the Democratic party apparatus, politicians, and staffers ought to be preparing for now. Appreciating how easily the extent of the damage could get papered over with time, we and other groups have spent the last year cataloging DOGE’s personnel, cuts, and impacts. 

While DOGE is no longer in the public spotlight, its ethos is still being carried out by Russell Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. DOGE oversight efforts must make clear to the American people that DOGE has not been dismantled; it has simply changed form. Vought is pursuing the same deregulatory agenda as DOGE, attempting to institutionalize the cuts to capacity, the unilateral impoundment of funds, and the reallocation of funding to right-wing ideological projects. 

Recognizing that Russell Vought is the “central architect driving the destruction of your government,” the Science and Freedom Alliance, along with a host of other groups representing current and former federal workers, is collecting signatures for a letter urging Congress to impeach Russell Vought. As our Kenny Stancil explained last year regarding Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, any member of Congress can introduce a privileged motion to impeach, forcing members to take a public position. Sure, Republicans will not vote to impeach Vought, but introducing the motion will raise the salience of Vought’s rampant lawbreaking and corruption. 

If a future Democratic administration wants to rebuild government capacity, it must ensure the people responsible for its destruction are held accountable. DOGE hearings, if executed correctly, will remind the American people of the immense harm that DOGE caused and the important functions that government agencies would have been performing if Vought and DOGE didn’t stand in the way.

Want more? Check out some of the pieces that we published or contributed research or thoughts to in the last week: 

RELEASE: Home Insurance Regulation Blunted by Revolving Door Activity and Insufficient Resources. New Tools Highlight Scale of Problems

Illuminating the Home Insurance Crisis

Tracking State Insurance Commissioners

Mapping Home Insurance Regulation

Map: Trump Has Often Delayed or Denied Disaster Aid

The Technobabble Defense: Cryptocurrency

Crypto Spends Big in Illinois House Races to Say Consumer Rights Supporters Are Corrupt

Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a “Who Lost the Week?” poll)

Jeff Hauser on The Dean Obeidallah Show (3/13/26)

The Epstein Prosecutor With A Portfolio Problem