Department Of Government Efficiency: National Labor Relations Board Detailees Did Not Access IT Systems Between April 16 and July 25, 2025
Fast Facts
We reviewed U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to IT systems at the National Labor Relations Board.
The Board entered into an agreement for DOGE to be detailed there from April 16-July 25, 2025. DOGE then requested and was granted access to the IT systems. We found no evidence that DOGE accessed the systems during the agreement period.
On April 14, 2025, a Board staff member told Congress that one or more DOGE personnel unlawfully accessed the IT systems in March 2025. The Board told us its Inspector General is investigating this allegation. We looked at the agreement period to avoid overlapping with the IG investigation.
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Highlights
What GAO Found
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administers and enforces the National Labor Relations Act. The Act encourages the practice of collective bargaining, protects the rights of employees in this area, and seeks to eliminate unfair labor practices. To do so, the Board relies on a host of IT systems to carry out its functions, including seven human resources systems.
According to NLRB officials, the United States DOGE Service (USDS) (formerly known as the United States Digital Service and now commonly referred to as DOGE) first contacted them on April 15, 2025. Subsequently, USDS staff met with NLRB’s Chairman, Acting General Counsel, and other senior Board leaders on April 16, 2025. That same day, NLRB entered into agreements for two General Services Administration employees to be detailed to NLRB as DOGE team staff. The agreements expired on July 25, 2025.
The DOGE team requested access to NLRB systems but did not use them. Specifically, both DOGE team staff requested access to all seven of the Board’s human resources systems. Board staff then (1) fulfilled two of those access requests but (2) did not fulfill the other five. Specifically:
- Two fulfilled requests. According to NLRB officials, the Board created accounts on April 24, 2025, for both team members that addressed two of the seven requests for system access. However, DOGE team staff did not use the accounts to enter the systems. Specifically, as of July 25, 2025, the team staff had not picked up their NLRB laptops or activated their system accounts, according to Board officials. Accordingly, NLRB disabled the system accounts shortly after the agreements with team staff expired.
- Five requests that were not fulfilled. Requests for access to the remaining five systems were not completed because the DOGE team staff did not pick up the laptops needed for the Board to provide them with such access.
GAO found no evidence that DOGE team staff accessed any of these systems between April 16, 2025, and July 25, 2025. To determine this, GAO reviewed the sign-in activity of the logs for the DOGE team members’ accounts used to access NLRB network resources and did not identify any sign-ins during the specified timeframes.
Why GAO Did This Study
USDS was created by executive order to implement the President’s goals to maximize government efficiency by modernizing technology. The executive order also calls for the heads of executive branch agencies to establish DOGE teams that work with USDS.
On April 14, 2025, an NLRB IT staff member disclosed to Congress allegations that one or more DOGE team members arrived in March 2025 and unlawfully accessed the Board’s case management systems and allowed potential foreign actors to exfiltrate or steal data. The following day, a news outlet publicly reported on these allegations. According to NLRB, the Board’s Inspector General is investigating these allegations.
GAO was asked to review the systems and information NLRB’s DOGE team accessed at the Board. This report describes the NLRB systems that the DOGE team had been provided access to and how, if at all, the team used those systems.
To address the objective, GAO focused on DOGE team access to NLRB systems between April 16, 2025, and July 25, 2025 (start and end dates for the agreements to detail DOGE team staff to NLRB). GAO did not review DOGE team access prior to April 16, 2025, to not overlap with the NLRB Inspector General’s investigation.
GAO reviewed system access request forms and NLRB approval communications to determine the level of access that the DOGE team was authorized to receive for each system. GAO also interviewed NLRB staff regarding what level of access they provided for each system to the team. GAO reviewed NLRB sign-in activity of the logs for the accounts used to access agency network resources.
The NLRB did not have any comments on the report.
For more information, contact Marisol Cruz Cain at CruzCainM@gao.gov.