A watchdog nonprofit said Wednesday that it was asking 16 federal agencies to detail any interactions they have had with Elon Musk’s new budget-cutting effort, the Department of Government Efficiency.

The nonprofit, State Democracy Defenders Fund, says it wants to protect the democratic process and the rule of law. It was founded last year by Norman Eisen, who was an ethics official during the Obama administration and served as counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump administration.

Eisen’s new group says its initial focus during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term will be the Department of Government Efficiency — which, despite its official-sounding name, is not a government department but a loosely organized effort run by Musk and another wealthy entrepreneur, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump has charged them with cutting government sharply by July 2026. Musk has said he wants to slash $2 trillion out of the federal budget, which would mean reducing federal spending by almost a third. He and Ramaswamy also have discussed cutting thousands of regulations, reducing the number of federal workers and even ending daylight saving time.

Eisen said his group was sending public-records requests to agencies, asking for copies of any emails or other correspondence with the department’s representatives. They also asked for any communications between federal officials and Trump’s transition team that reference Musk’s budget-cutting effort.

The watchdog group is also asking agencies for internal communications that show federal workers talking about the department, often called DOGE, among themselves.

Musk’s companies got about $3 billion of contracts with federal agencies last year alone.

Because Musk’s new position could allow him to recommend cuts to funding or staff in any part of government, it could give him leverage over his regulators and his customers in Washington.