Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, has raised concerns over mass emails being sent to legislative branch offices and agencies by Elon Musk and Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Charles Ezell.
In an open letter published recently, Padilla highlighted that several legislative branch offices and agencies have been receiving mass emails from [email protected], despite not falling under the jurisdiction of personnel actions by the executive branch.
Padilla emphasized that neither the White House, the Department of Government Efficiency, nor OPM have the authority or legitimate purpose to send mass emails to legislative branch offices and agencies, demanding information from employees or threatening adverse personnel actions.
Over the weekend, OPM sent out mass emails to federal government workers, requesting them to provide a summary of their activities from the previous week using five bullet points. Employees were given until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to respond to the inquiry.
Padilla expressed his concern that these emails, received by legislative staffers, were a waste of time and resources and could potentially mislead employees into sharing legislative branch information in an unauthorized manner.
He further noted that the emails were troubling, especially since some executive branch agencies had cautioned their employees against responding to the messages to prevent sensitive information from falling into the hands of malicious foreign actors.
Padilla criticized the mass emails as a sign of disorganization within the Office of Personnel Management, describing the situation as uninformed, poorly executed, and chaotic.
In conclusion, the Democratic lawmaker called on DOGE and OPM to confirm that they have taken measures to halt any further mass email communications directed at legislative branch offices, agencies, and their employees.
