Undermined: A Small Federal Agency Was Investigating Dangers to Miners. Then Came DOGE

Undermined: A small federal agency was investigating dangers to miners. Then came DOGE

The NIOSH Coal Worker's Health Surveillance Program offered periodic black lung screenings at no cost to coal miners in the U.S. (NIOSH photo)This story was originally published by InvestigateWest, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to change-making investigative journalism. Sign up for their Watchdog Weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Like his father and his grandfather, Marshal Cummings grew up mining trona, a substa…

Elon Musk's prominent role in the U.S. President's White House, Donald Trump, seems to be disappearing, but the creation of the technology billionaire — the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which cut the budget — is ready to continue its work after its exit. Within four months, DOGE's efforts have been incorporated into the whole government — from key staff, moving on from work to reform agencies' software systems, sometimes decades o…