Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and two Democratic congressional colleagues are demanding an explanation from U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor for “the alarming extent to which Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees are embedding themselves in the federal government in key agency positions.”

In an apparent reference to DOGE employees who are or were politically appointed by President Donald Trump, Warren said such embedding into the career civil service workforce threatens “the ability of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and other government agencies to serve the American people.”

Warren was joined by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) in a 10-page, single-spaced August 6 letter to Kupor. The congressional trio further claimed that “although Elon Musk has departed, his influence remains, as DOGE and its employees attempt to become a permanent part of the federal government, scattered across agencies where they can continue to sabotage key functions from within.”

Even so, according to the Democrats, “the conversion of DOGE appointees to career federal service roles — even as most agencies are under a hiring freeze — could potentially run afoul of laws that explicitly ban political considerations and loyalty tests in hiring practices. Additionally, it is unclear who the newly embedded DOGE staff are accountable to and if they truly serve within the chain of command of the agencies they work for.”

Warren is not a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HSCGA), which has oversight authority for OPM, but Blumenthal is the Ranking Member of the HSCGA Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Garcia is the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the lower chamber’s panel with OPM oversight authority.

Asked by The Washington Stand for a response to the letter, Kupor said, “Senator Warren’s letter misconstrues the civil service hiring process. OPM’s Office of Merit Systems Accountability and Compliance reviews all requests to appoint current or recent political appointees to career roles for compliance with merit systems principles and civil service laws. In addition, all federal hires undergo required background checks, ethics reviews, and suitability screenings. No DOGE-affiliated individuals have ‘unlawfully burrowed’ into career roles. We welcome oversight grounded in facts.”

TWS reached out to two of Warren’s spokesmen for responses to Kupor, but none were received by press time for this news story.

In their letter to Kupor, which was also addressed to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, the Democrats cited media reports claiming former DOGE political appointees are converting to career employees.

In a June 25 story quoted by the Democratic letter writers, for example, NPR claimed that “a number of the young software engineers who were among DOGE’s earliest recruits have recently converted from ‘special government employees’ — a time-limited role — to full-time federal workers. That includes Luke Farritor and Ethan Shaotran, who became regular staffers at the General Services Administration this spring, according to internal GSA records seen by NPR.”

TWS has asked both OPM and GSA to verify whether Farritor and/or Shaotran are on the federal government’s payroll and, if they are, how they are classified, as political or career employees. An OPM spokesman responded that, based on that agency’s records, “We can confirm these guys are not employees.”

No response was received from GSA.

Warren, Blumenthal, and Garcia told Kupor and Vought that their concerns about political appointees converting to career positions is part of their bigger worries about the Trump administration.

“The embedding of DOGE employees is part of a larger, disturbing trend of corruption in the Trump Administration, with individuals and corporations that appear to have done political or financial favors for the President given special treatment, and the President and other executive branch officials — including Elon Musk and other DOGE appointees — serving in important policy positions despite having significant financial conflicts of interest,” the letter said.