Four representatives of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force have been installed at the National Institutes of Health, according to multiple sources. WIRED reporting shows not only which DOGE members are at the NIH but also the sensitive financial system at least some of them have access to.
Government records reviewed by WIRED show that the four people associated with DOGE have email addresses linking them to the NIH, the federal agency for health research in the US. Internal documents reviewed by WIRED show that three of these employees are employed in the department that controls the NIH’s central electronic business system, which includes finance, budget, procurement, a property-management system, and a grant-tracking system.
The DOGE operatives listed in government records are Luke Farritor, Rachel Riley, Jeremy Lewin, and Clark Minor. Farritor is a former SpaceX intern and current Thiel fellow who also has a working email address linking him to the General Services Administration (GSA). Minor, a former engineer at Palantir, is, as has been reported, the chief information officer of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Lewin is an agency lead at DOGE, according to ProPublica; he has a GSA email and has been named in an affidavit related to a lawsuit as having been involved in the gutting of the US Agency for International Development. Riley works closely with Brad Smith, a former health care entrepreneur and DOGE leader prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to The New York Times.
Internal documents list Farritor, Riley, and Minor as working under the umbrella of the NIH Business System Department. NBS is the central electronic business system of the NIH, according to the agency’s website. The NBS sits within the NIH’s Office of Management, under the Office of the Director, and administers the core running of the NIH, including procurement, property management, data consolidation, and financial reporting. One NIH employee, who was granted anonymity as they are not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency, referred to NBS as “NIH’s wallet.”
Got a Tip?
Are you a current NIH employee, or otherwise have insight into how DOGE is operating within the government? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter on Signal: mattreynolds.45
None of the DOGE-linked NIH employees responded to WIRED’s requests to comment. The NIH did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The NIH is the largest federal funder of biomedical research and a key sub-agency within HHS—the government agency now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Earlier in February the NIH dramatically slashed the funding it gives to universities, leaning heavily on a report by the Heritage Foundation that railed against the “massive growth in DEI staff at US universities.” The NIH, which has a budget of $48 billion, has also frozen funding for applications for $1.5 billion in medical research, according to NPR.
DOGE workers, according to WIRED reporting, have effectively taken over key government agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the GSA. On Saturday, employees throughout the federal government were left in confusion after receiving an email from the OPM demanding that they reply with “approx 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”
The Trump administration’s executive orders and policies have also wreaked havoc on domestic and international research. Cuts to USAID are helping to fuel human trafficking at scammer compounds and have made it harder for food aid to be delivered. Meanwhile, cuts at the US Department of Agriculture have derailed vital climate and crop projects intended to benefit farmers.