Some Federal Agencies Do U-Turn on Musk Email

Federal employees face a midnight deadline to comply with Elon Musk's second demand for reports on their recent accomplishments, a request that has become a flashpoint within the government workforce. The email was sent out Friday evening.

• Musk and President Trump have suggested that employees who don't comply could be fired. They've also described the requirement—a list of five things that each person did last week—as an unobjectionable way to increase accountability within a sprawling bureaucracy.
• But for many workers, the request has been a source of anxiety and confusion as the new administration tightens its grip on the federal government, the AP reports. Some agencies are still telling their workforces not to respond or to limit what they say in response, just as they did after Musk's first request last month. Others, including the Department of Health and Human Services, have reversed their positions and now say workers are required to respond, reports Reuters.

• Judging by instructions that have circulated in recent days, the workforce will face a standing request for lists of accomplishments every Monday. There are roughly 2.4 million federal workers, excluding active-duty military and postal workers. Less than half of them responded to the first email.
• At the Food and Drug Administration, employees received three emails Monday on the topic—the first at about 6:45am Eastern letting them know about the request, the second before 8am telling them to await guidance, and the third after 11:30am explaining how they should respond. Employees were told to write back with "a high level of generality" and not include any sensitive data, discuss specific grants or identify colleagues that they're working with.

• There was similar guidance at the Department of Energy, which plays a key role in managing the country's nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, the FBI workforce was told that Director Kash Patel's previous guidance instructing employees to hold off on responding "remains in effect until further notice."
• On Friday, before the second email was sent, the Office of Personnel Management updated a privacy impact assessment on its emails to federal workers, the Hill reports. Language that states responding is "explicitly voluntary" has been removed, and the document now states that "consequences for failure to provide the requested information will vary depending on the particular email at issue."

(More federal employees stories.)