A federal judge on Friday declined to block Elon Musk's government cost-cutting department from accessing the U.S. Department of Labor's systems, an initial setback for the government employee unions resisting his efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

Marko Elez, the DOGE staffer who resigned after racist social media posts including a call to "normalize Indian hate" surfaced, will return to work for Musk, the billionaire announced.