June 5, 2025 — In a statement for the record at a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the federal government in the age of artificial intelligence, Director of Research Alice E. Marwick and Policy Director Brian J. Chen (with assistance from Jacob Metcalf, Meg Young, and Serena Oduro) lay out three points:

The Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to sensitive government data violates federal law and threatens the personal privacy of every American. The federal government’s adoption of AI technologies should be guided by democratic values. Yet under the guise of efficiency and innovation, DOGE has unlawfully accessed sensitive data, deployed untested AI systems at scale, and circumvented critical safeguards in federal procurement. These actions do not merely risk technical failure. They erode the rule of law, weaken public trust, and potentially inflict material harm on millions of Americans, particularly the most vulnerable.

A hasty rush to roll out untested AI will not result in efficient, high-quality government services. Instead, the unchecked use of AI will accelerate large-scale harms to the public, gutting critical services while offering no avenues for accountability and recourse. AI is being used not to modernize government, but to dismantle it. Launched without transparency or accountability, AI systems are already being used to fire civil servants, deny essential benefits, analyze private information, and centralize power. At the same time, lucrative government contracts are flowing to politically connected technology firms whose products undermine privacy and civil rights. This is not digital transformation; it is technocratic austerity cloaked in the rhetoric of progress.

In order to protect Americans’ civil rights, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform must ensure that the development and rollout of federal AI systems follow procurement laws and best practices. The Committee’s intervention is essential to prevent the normalization of unlawful, untested, and unsafe AI and data access practices across the federal government. We urge this Committee to exercise robust oversight, enforce compliance with federal privacy and procurement laws, and ensure that AI systems serve the public interest rather than private power.