By REBECCA-HANSEN WHITE/KLCC News
Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., has left the House DOGE caucus less than two months after joining.
The caucus is a separate entity from billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE task force, which has been attempting to make widespread, legally questionable cuts across the federal workforce.
In a statement Thursday, Hoyle said she joined the caucus in good faith to provide advice, and potentially partner on legislation to improve government efficiency. She said Musk’s actions, such as accessing government databases and cutting jobs without waiting for congressional approval, have made that impossible. She said Musk has put the programs her constituents rely on, and their personal data, at risk.
Hoyle represents Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, which includes all of Lincoln County.
In an interview on News Nation, Hoyle said she and the other Democrats who joined the mostly Republican caucus thought they would be able to have real conversations about government waste.
“I don’t see how we can do this work when Elon Musk is blowing things up,” she told host Chris Cuomo. “It’s like trying to replace your roof when someone throws dynamite in your living room”
Hoyle isn’t the only member of Congress from Oregon who has raised concerns about Musk’s actions. Portland Democrat Maxine Dexter recently introduced the “Stop Musk Act.” The short bill would protect federal employees from retaliation for “resisting, circumventing or preventing Elon Musk or individuals he oversees from taking unlawful or unconstitutional actions relating to federal agencies.”
Reps. Janelle Bynum, Andrea Salinas and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have all participated in rallies protesting Musk’s actions. Wyden and Merkley have also joined a group of Democrats formally calling for an investigation into Musk’s access to Department of Education and student loan data.
“This deeply troubling report raises questions about potential exposures of Americans’ private data, the abuse of this data by the Trump Administration,” they wrote, “and whether officials who have access to the data may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures for handling sensitive information.”
- This story originally appeared on KLCC, a nonprofit public radio station in Eugene and a news partner of YachatsNews
