1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

The Trump administration's efforts to allow Elon Musk to install loyalists as agency chief information officers pose a dire threat to the integrity and security of federal IT systems. By reclassifying CIOs from career civil servants to political appointees, Musk could fill these critical technical roles with unqualified cronies focused on advancing his ideological agenda rather than effectively managing government technology infrastructure. This blatant attempt to centralize control over federal IT systems under Musk's oversight undermines principles of democratic governance and accountability. The American people deserve a federal workforce that serves the public interest, not the whims of a wealthy businessman attempting a de facto corporate takeover of the government. This memo from the Office of Personnel Management must be forcefully opposed to protect the independence and impartiality of agency IT operations. Allowing this power grab to proceed unchallenged would jeopardize citizen data, cybersecurity, and the basic functioning of the entire federal bureaucracy.