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Democrats Are Gearing Up to Investigate the Trump Administration. It Won’t Be Easy

随着民调显示民主党人可能夺回美国众议院，甚至可能夺回参议院，立法者们正准备对特朗普政府展开调查。但即便在国会两院都占据多数席位，这可能仍将被证明是一项艰巨的任务。

In late September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency titled “DOGE: Congress and the Public Lack Assurance That Systems and Data Were Protected at Multiple Agencies.” In it, the GAO revealed that multiple executive branch agencies had refused to fully cooperate with investigators about the extent and nature of DOGE’s access to sensitive systems and information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which DOGE and the Trump administration gutted in the early months of the president’s second term, sent the GAO a letter accusing investigators of bias and alleging the report was “misleading.”

9月下旬，美国政府问责局（GAO）发布了一份关于埃隆·马斯克所谓的“政府效率部”（DOGE）的报告，题为《DOGE：国会和公众缺乏系统与数据在多个机构受到保护的保证》。报告披露，多个行政部门拒绝就DOGE访问敏感系统和信息的程度及性质与调查人员充分合作。消费者金融保护局（CFPB）——该机构在总统第二任期初期遭到DOGE和特朗普政府的削弱——致信GAO，指责调查人员存在偏见，并声称该报告具有“误导性”。

The report, just the latest example of the Trump administration seeking to dodge congressional oversight, raises questions about what—if any—avenues the legislature has to enforce accountability, or even access basic information about what the government has been doing.

这份报告只是特朗普政府试图逃避国会监督的最新例证，它引发了人们的质疑：立法机构究竟有什么途径（如果有的话）来强制问责，甚至获取关于政府正在做什么的基本信息。

“In a world where there is no shame, it’s hard to think of what Congress can do that doesn’t involve some coercion of some kind,” says Emily Berman, a law professor at the University of Houston. “Like withholding money or going to court.”

休斯顿大学法学教授艾米丽·伯曼（Emily Berman）表示：“在一个不知羞耻的世界里，很难想到国会能做什么而不涉及某种形式的强制手段。比如扣留资金或诉诸法庭。”

The GAO serves as Congress’ primary investigative body; its work is most often initiated by requests from Congress but it is independent and nonpartisan. It does not, however, have the ability to enforce laws or take on prosecution. Federal agencies don’t necessarily have to enact the agency’s suggestions but they are legally required to cooperate with GAO’s requests for information and auditing.

GAO是国会的主要调查机构；其工作通常由国会请求发起，但它是独立且无党派的。然而，它没有能力执行法律或进行起诉。联邦机构不一定非要采纳该机构的建议，但法律要求它们必须配合GAO的信息和审计请求。

The GAO and a Democratic congressional aide who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity, though, say that the agencies investigated by the GAO for the DOGE report—the CFPB, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), the Department of Education, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Small Business Administration (SBA)—all, in one way or another, refused to cooperate with the investigation.

然而，GAO和一位匿名接受《连线》（WIRED）采访的民主党国会助手表示，GAO在DOGE报告中调查的机构——CFPB、退伍军人事务部（VA）、教育部、国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）、证券交易委员会（SEC）以及小企业管理局（SBA）——都以某种方式拒绝配合调查。

“We have experienced increased challenges in obtaining information from agencies over the past year and a half,” GAO spokesperson Sarah Kaczmarek says. “As this report demonstrates, when agencies do not provide requested information, it can limit GAO’s ability to provide Congress and the public with assurance that federal programs, systems, and information are appropriately managed and protected.”

GAO发言人莎拉·卡兹马雷克（Sarah Kaczmarek）表示：“在过去的一年半里，我们在从各机构获取信息方面遇到了越来越多的挑战。正如这份报告所展示的那样，当机构不提供所要求的信息时，这可能会限制GAO向国会和公众保证联邦项目、系统和信息得到妥善管理和保护的能力。”

As an example, every agency included in the report refused to do so much as name which DOGE operatives they’d played host to—even when that information had already been publicly reported. The CFPB refused to name all six of the DOGE operatives who were detailed to the agency even though, in February 2025, WIRED identified three of them: Nikhil Rajpal, Chris Young, and Gavin Kliger. DOGE members Jeremy Lewin and Jordan Wick were also part of the team at the agency.

例如，报告中提到的每个机构甚至拒绝透露他们接待了哪些DOGE工作人员——即使这些信息已经被公开报道。CFPB拒绝透露被派往该机构的所有六名DOGE工作人员的姓名，尽管《连线》在2025年2月已经确认了其中三人：尼基尔·拉杰帕尔（Nikhil Rajpal）、克里斯·杨（Chris Young）和加文·克里格（Gavin Kliger）。DOGE成员杰里米·卢因（Jeremy Lewin）和乔丹·威克（Jordan Wick）也是该机构团队的成员。

According to the report, both the SBA and the VA “did not respond to requests for information needed to determine the access DOGE team members had to their systems.” Previous reporting from WIRED found that the DOGE affiliate at the VA, Sahil Lavingia, sought to use AI to write code for the agency’s systems, and at the SBA, DOGE affiliates Edward “Big Balls” Coristine and Donald Park were granted broad access to the agency’s financial and loan systems.

根据报告，小企业管理局（SBA）和退伍军人事务部（VA）“均未回应确定DOGE团队成员对其系统访问权限所需的信息请求”。《连线》此前的报道发现，退伍军人事务部的DOGE附属人员萨希尔·拉文吉亚（Sahil Lavingia）曾试图利用人工智能为该机构的系统编写代码；而在小企业管理局，DOGE附属人员爱德华·“大球”·科里斯汀（Edward “Big Balls” Coristine）和唐纳德·帕克（Donald Park）被授予了对该机构财务和贷款系统的广泛访问权限。

The Democratic aide says that in addition to the VA and SBA refusing to provide information, several agencies slow-walked their responses to the GAO. The aide says that meeting some resistance within an agency to a GAO investigation is not unheard of but that responses to the DOGE inquiry represented a “surprising” level of obstruction.

这位民主党助手表示，除了退伍军人事务部和小企业管理局拒绝提供信息外，还有几个机构在回应GAO时采取了拖延战术。该助手称，在GAO调查中遇到机构内部的一些阻力并非闻所未闻，但对DOGE调查的回应代表了一种“令人惊讶”的阻挠程度。

“We did see a little bit of a range in terms of cooperation,” they say. “Normally, an agency might be reluctant to provide as much information as the GAO requests, but then they try to find accommodations. If they can’t provide X, they provide Y. If they can’t provide Y maybe they could walk investigators through something, or show different things. But there’s just a complete lack of willingness to kind of get to yes.”

“我们在合作方面确实看到了一些差异，”他们说。“通常情况下，一个机构可能不愿意提供GAO要求的所有信息，但他们会尝试寻找折中方案。如果他们不能提供X，他们会提供Y。如果他们不能提供Y，也许他们可以引导调查人员了解某些情况，或者展示其他东西。但现在完全缺乏一种达成共识的意愿。”

And it’s not just the agencies named in the DOGE report that have been resistant to congressional efforts to investigate. In a statement to WIRED, Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, says that his office was notified by the GAO that the Commerce Department “is refusing to cooperate with my request with Sen. Welch to investigate the effectiveness of US export controls to address AI-fueled national security risks.”

不仅是DOGE报告中提到的机构在抵制国会的调查努力。俄勒冈州民主党参议员罗恩·怀登（Ron Wyden）在给《连线》的一份声明中表示，他的办公室收到GAO的通知，称商务部“拒绝配合我和韦尔奇参议员（Sen. Welch）提出的调查美国出口管制在应对人工智能引发的国家安全风险方面的有效性的请求”。

While the current Republican-led Congress appears to have little interest in using them, there are tools to enforce cooperation with a GAO investigation. The most obvious–and likely–is using their subpoena power, which the Democratic aide says members of Congress are preparing to do. “We are expecting that the administration is gearing up for [the next Congress] to be hostile,” they say.

虽然目前由共和党领导的国会似乎对使用这些工具兴趣不大，但确实存在强制配合GAO调查的手段。最明显且最可能的方式是使用传票权，这位民主党助手表示，国会议员们正准备这样做。“我们预计政府正在为（下一届国会）的敌对状态做准备，”他们说。

If someone refuses to cooperate with a subpoena, Congress can hold them in contempt. “It used to be that if Congress threatened to hold an executive official in contempt of Congress, that was like a huge embarrassment,” says Berman. “And that imposed a lot of pressure on the executive branch to reach some agreement.”

如果有人拒绝配合传票，国会可以判定其藐视国会。“过去，如果国会威胁要判定一名行政官员藐视国会，那将是一个巨大的尴尬，”伯曼说。“这给行政部门施加了很大的压力，促使其达成某种协议。”