U.S. Peace Institute Goes to War With DOGE
Agency officials immediately turned away staffers who arrived unannounced on Saturday.
Arriving unannounced on Saturday, several DOGE members showed up at their new target: the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). The agency’s counsel then turned the workers away at the entrance.
“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel, who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency. Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” the USIP said in a statement to The Hill.
Congress founded USIP as a nonpartisan, independent agency in 1984 to protect “U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad,” according to its website.
“Our work helps keep America safe, reducing the risk that the United States will be drawn into costly foreign wars that drive terrorism, criminal gangs and migration,” the organization’s mission statement says.
DOGE has been working in overdrive since January, helping to slash budgets and workers at agencies across the government. Other agencies the department has taken a chainsaw to include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. In many instances, DOGE workers have accessed sensitive user information, alarming privacy watchdogs.
DOGE has touted its “wall of receipts” showing $115 billion in savings on its website, but media outlets like The New York Times have called its figures into doubt after independent analysis found numerous, glaring accounting errors.
Under scrutiny late last month, the department deleted its five biggest spending cuts, which it had celebrated just days prior.
USIP, which works closely with the Department of Defense, has a nonpartisan board of directors confirmed by the Senate. Its members include the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the president of the National Defense University.
The federally funded agency, founded under former President Ronald Reagan, said that it was committed “to the cooperation and comity with the Trump Administration.”
“This includes ensuring the responsible use of taxpayer funds, aggressively pursuing its ongoing efforts to modernize and make all aspects of its operations more efficient,” the statement continued.