Center for Biological Diversity v. Office of Management & Budget

On February 27, 2025, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and agencies and individuals within OMB to disclose records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) including presidential transition documents and United States DOGE Service (DOGE) and United States DOGE Service Temporary Organization (DOGETO) records that CBD alleged “affect air and water quality; climate change, imperiled plants and wildlife; public lands; and environmental justice issues.” CBD alleged that it had not received timely determinations on, or records responsive to, FOIA requests submitted on December 9, 2024 and January 27, 2025. CBD alleged that the records’ relevance was “extremely time sensitive given DOGE’s ongoing efforts to refashion the federal government and workforce in fundamental ways with no or minimal transparency.” CBD also claimed that DOGE and DOGETO were in violation of FOIA’s affirmative disclosure mandates that require agencies to “inform the public as to the various categories of information available for public scrutiny and the specific means of requesting information under FOIA.”