The Musk-led panel looking for trillions in budget cuts and eliminating as many as a million federal jobs gets off to an evasive, rocky start.

Adept White House legal maneuvering is shielding the new Department of Government Efficiency from Freedom of Information Act transparency regulations and sidestepping onerous federal staffing laws—providing maximum political and operational flexibility to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, leader of the “DOGE” initiative.

On Monday evening, Trump signed an order that renames the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which was created in 2014 by former President Barack Obama to “change [the] government’s approach to technology,” as the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS). (Note the identical acronyms.)

The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will operate within the U.S. government, according to a fact sheet connected with an executive order expected Monday to establish the new entity,

Trump announced the creation of DOGE, co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, shortly after winning the election in November. Their mission is focused on cutting government spending: Musk and Ramaswamy paid an early visit to Capitol Hill to discuss their efforts with lawmakers, and the creation of the Senate DOGE Caucus soon followed.