DOGE created a 'survey of surveys' for a push to cut some government data collection

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Source: NPR

May 23, 2025 2:57 PM ET


In a new push to end some U.S. government surveys, the Trump administration's DOGE team has created its own.

This week, Ethan Shaotran, a member of the unit set up by President Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk, used a General Services Administration email address to send a seven-page form titled "2025 Survey of Surveys" to federal agencies, according to documents NPR obtained from a federal agency official who was not authorized to share it with the press.

The move raises questions about whether the controversial team is bypassing the White House's Office of Management and Budget, where federal law set up a subagency to oversee the federal government's statistical activities. The team that calls itself the

"Department of Government Efficiency" may be, in fact, duplicating OMB's ongoing review of federal surveys and the resources they require, some government data watchers say. This effort is also sparking concerns about potential violations of laws that require the government to report the statistics that a canceled survey would produce.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/nx-s1-5409331/doge-data-census-bureau