The inspector general (IG) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said his office is taking a look into the impact that the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is having on cybersecurity and data privacy practices at OPM.
In a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., OPM’s Acting IG Norbert Vint acknowledged a Feb. 6 letter from Connolly and other House Democrats relaying their “urgent concerns related to potential unauthorized access of government networks and sensitive information at certain federal agencies, including at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).”
In the Feb. 6 letter to inspectors general at several agencies, 21 House Democrats pleaded for watchdogs at several agencies to investigate revelations that DOGE employees had “gained access to protected government networks and sensitive data” at agencies including the Treasury Department, General Services Administration (GSA), OPM, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In his March 7 reply, Vint said his office “has reviewed your request and incorporated parts of your request into existing work.”
“We have also initiated a new engagement on specific emerging risks at OPM that are related to issues raised in your letter,” said Vint, whose current title at OPM is deputy inspector general performing the duties of the inspector general.
It’s not clear from the exchange of letters how soon the OPM inspector general may complete its work on the new engagement.
Vint, however, said his office “takes seriously the integrity of OPM’s information technology (IT) security program,” and added, “Our office has long engaged in oversight of OPM’s IT security program not only as required by statute but also based on developing risks identified through our ongoing risk assessment efforts.”
“Several of the concerns you expressed in your letter touch on issues that the OPM OIG evaluates as part of our annual reviews of OPM’s IT and financial systems, and we plan to incorporate those concerns into these existing projects,” Vint said.
“We have also just begun an engagement to assess risks associated with new and modified information systems at OPM,” the inspector general said. “We believe that, ultimately, our new engagement will broadly address many of your questions related to the integrity of OPM systems.”
In announcing receipt of Vint’s response, Rep. Connolly said, “Inspectors General must have the independence to carry out their mission free from partisan pressure and threat. That is the only way these government watchdogs can conduct their important work on behalf of the American people.”
“The work of the Deputy Inspector General and the OPM Office of Inspector General must be allowed to proceed unimpeded,” the congressman said.
Separately, Rep. Connolly said today he asked the heads of the largest 24 Federal agencies for documents and information about their responses to Feb. 26 instructions from OPM and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to deliver by March 13 “Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans” that should feature “significant” headcount cuts at agencies.
“I request that you submit to the [House Oversight and Reform] Committee any materials your agency develops responsive to the February 26 memo,” Rep. Connolly said, adding that he wants those materials to be delivered to lawmakers “concurrent with submission to OMB and/or OPM.”
“The actions outlined in this memo will further enable the Administration’s political purge of dedicated civil servants from federal agencies,” Rep. Connolly said, referring to the Feb. 26 instructions from OPM and OMB. “The Administration has already engaged in illegal RIFs, deep funding cuts that endanger many of our government’s life-saving missions, and the unlawful wholesale dismantlement of congressionally authorized federal agencies,” the congressman said.
