Labor Board’s DOGE Detailees Connected to Agency Take Downs

The two Department of Government Efficiency operatives assigned to the National Labor Relations Board are linked to Trump administration efforts to dismantle small agencies.

DOGE staffers Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox were detailed to the agency, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Cavanaugh and Fox have been connected in court filings and news reports to moves to take apart the US Institute of Peace, the US African Development Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

DOGE, led by billionaire and “special government employee” Elon Musk, has been at the vanguard of the Trump administration’s campaign to drastically shrink the federal government through mass layoffs, canceled leases and other contracts, and in some instances effectively shutting down entire agencies.

Cavanaugh is serving as acting president of the Institute of Peace, one of the agencies hollowed out by the administration, court filings say. Before joining DOGE, Cavanaugh co-founded the intellectual property management platform Brainbase, and the accounting and finance platform FloFi, according to his LinkedIn profile.

DOGE operatives were assigned to the NLRB the day after NPR published a report alleging that DOGE took sensitive data from the agency’s internal case management system and attempted to cover up its tracks. The whistleblower featured in the NPR report also submitted his allegations to Congress.

The DOGE detail at the NLRB detail is part-time and will last several months, according to an agency email reviewed by Bloomberg Law. The staffers will primarily conduct their work remotely.

Musk’s electric car company, Tesla Inc., and aerospace firm, SpaceX, have tangled with the NLRB in several cases. SpaceX is currently litigating a pair of lawsuits that alleged elements of the NLRB’s structure violate the US Constitution.

The White House didn’t immediately provide comment, and the NLRB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.