A tale of two committees

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) present cautionary tales of unaccountability and misplaced power.

DOGE has intruded on major government functions with no oversight or meaningful transparency. A lawsuit is in progress to compel disclosure and the preservation of DOGE’s records under the Freedom of Information Law and the Federal Records Act.

Solicitor General Dean John Sauer wrote in a Supreme Court filing that DOGE is not an agency, but merely a “presidential advisory body” or committee, exempt from FOIL.

Meanwhile, its anti-labor carnage has included decimating agencies through the firing of thousands of federal workers regardless of merit, the cancelling of contracts and the closing of some regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board.

Congress has meekly conveyed to DOGE its lawful authority to make appropriations decisions, including spending cuts.

Similarly, local unions have surrendered their authority — bargaining power — to the MLC, which also operates in the shadows, not answerable to FOIL disclosure.

And if fighting to force retirees into Medicare Advantage is not anti-labor, I don’t know what is. The New York State Committee on Open Government issued an advisory opinion in 2022 determining that the MLC is not a public body, since it is not comprised of any “governmental authorities or public officers,” so transparency is not required,

But MLC committees that make consequential decisions may include public employees, as well as private. Who do they work for?

In a letter denying disclosure of the affiliation of Evaluation Committee members, the city Office of Labor Relations’ FOIL appeals officer wrote that “disclosure of the identifying information may harm the ongoing relationship between labor and management in health benefit procurement processes.”

The lawsuit brought by the MLC against the city over $4 billion in pledged health savings has already done that.

Harry Weiner