DOGE is on the verge of shuttering the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office at the Department of Homeland Security. This is the office charged with preventing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons inside the United States. This is through a mix of intelligence, technology, preparedness, liaising with state and local policy, etc. (There’s more details on it here.) It’s an office with just over 250 federal employees and about twice that number of contractors.
As much as anything, the office seems like a target of an opportunity. The office was created in 2018 by combining two existing offices. It needed to be reauthorized in 2023. But it got held up with some small-bore parliamentary maneuvers by Sen. Rand Paul. It’s still there with its appropriated funds. But it didn’t have the same congressional authorization. The upshot of that is that if you’re looking for things to shut down, that makes it legally simpler to do. So even in the context of basically everything DOGE does being illegal it’s an easier lift.
I’m told the DOGErs’ decision could come imminently.
