PARKERSBURG — Local protesters marched Tuesday around the buildings of the federal Bureau of the Fiscal Service in downtown Parkersburg to protest the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency and its head Elon Musk.

A group of over 150 protesters started at Bicentennial Park with a rally and then marched around the buildings on Avery Street and between Market and Juliana streets that house operations for the bureau.

There had been indications around the community this week that DOGE officials would be in Parkersburg on Tuesday going over operations at those sites. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel could not independently confirm if anyone from DOGE was actually on site.

A representative of the National Treasury Employees Union that represents Fiscal Service employees, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had heard those reports of the visit but confirm or deny the presence of DOGE.

“I do not know who was in the building,” the representative said.

Messages seeking comment have been sent to Fiscal Service and the Department of the Treasury of which it is a part.

Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia were on hand at Bicentennial Park handing out signs and rallying people before the march.

People raised concerns about their privacy regarding their personal information, their Constitutional rights and what DOGE would be accessing. They said they were concerned about the authority given to DOGE, especially under the leadership of Trump’s adviser Musk.

ACLU of West Virginia Representative Rusty Williams told the crowd that if any one of them walked into that building with a portable thumb drive and tried to take information, they would be arrested and jailed.

“When a billionaire does it, it is the people who end up having to be the checks and balances,” he said. “We are on the verge of a legitimate Constitutional crisis and if we don’t stand together, we are going to lose this republic.”

As people marched around the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, they chanted things like “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go” and “Give us back our Constitution.”

Local attorney Walt Auvil said he was worried about DOGE making significant cuts to one of the largest employers in the area without constitutional authority.

“The DOGE thing is fundamentally illegal,” he said. “The question that we’re going to answer is will that matter.

“We don’t know the answer to that question yet and that is pretty scary.”

Congress created the Bureau of Fiscal Services and a group like DOGE does not have the legal authority to do anything to them, Auvil said.

“If you want to do away with them, you can go to Congress and ask them to do it,” he said. “That is not what is happening here, and that is a problem.”

One of the attendees to the protest who only wished to be identified as “Charles” also was concerned about DOGE’s authority to be there and looking at records at the bureau.

“This government committee, they have no constitutional authority to be here; our data’s our data; they are bypassing Congress,” he said. “If this is what they want to do, if they want to audit, if they want to conduct an audit, then what they need to do is follow proper channels: Write a bill, send it to the House, have the House pass it, get it through the Senate, and then Trump can sign it. But until he does that all of this is illegal.”

It is the people who run the government and without them it can’t work, Charles said.

“People are taking action, and because of that I just hope we see more people out here protesting the injustices and all the illegal stuff and corruption that this administration’s done in the short three weeks they’ve been in office,” he said.

Mary Eddy of Parkersburg said she was concerned about friends and family employed at the Bureau.

“I am concerned about people losing their jobs,” she said. “There is uncertainty about jobs at the bureau.”

Eddy was concerned about efforts to do away with programs that promote diversity.

“It is important for us to have our ideas and opinions heard,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., issued a statement saying he was aware of the situation in Parkersburg and that he did not believe the purpose of the DOGE visit was to cut jobs at Fiscal Service.

“For what we know at this time, this is an effort to find waste, not lay off folks working in Parkersburg,” he said.

“I am aware of the government efficiency team coming to Parkersburg, and I’m supportive of their effort to locate wasteful spending,” he said. “This building is the accounting for dollars flowing in and out of our treasury; it makes sense why President Trump would look there to locate reckless spending.

The statement also added DOGE officials would only be on read-only access.

Former Marietta public school teacher and member of the Democratic Party Betsy Cook also attended the protest Tuesday.

“They are trying to take away our democracy, our freedom, and they are also in our data, which is very scary,” said Cook. “We want them to see that not all of us are happy with what they’re doing; (Musk) says he has a mandate but we did not give him that mandate, and we do not want him to feel he has that mandate so we have signs all around.”

Matt Devore of Parkersburg, who was marching in the protest, was concerned about the amount of power Trump is exercising.

“This vast expansion of executive power is unconstitutional and antithetical to everything America stands for,” he said. “It can’t be allowed to stand.”

Terry Archer of Williamstown compared the peaceful protest Tuesday to protests she attended in the 1970s in support of women’s rights at a time when a woman couldn’t get a credit card without her husband’s signature.

“What is happening is not democracy; it is a take over by billionaires,” she said. “We are not going to stand for it. We will fight and fight and fight.

“We are the only people left who can fight and we have to stand up for our democracy.”

The snow falling in the area probably kept some people away, Archer said, but they still had a good turnout.

“There was no violence,” she said. “We are about peaceful protest.”

Requests for comment from the offices of Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va.; Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., who is co-chairman of the House DOGE Caucus; and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio; and West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Matt Herridge were not returned by deadline.

Messages seeking comment have been sent to Fiscal Service and the Department of the Treasury of which it is a part.

Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board said his department was aware of the reports about DOGE and the protest, but no intervention by police was required.

“It all seemed to be peaceful from a public safety perspective,” he said.

City Editor Evan Bevins contributed to this story

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com and Gwen Sour at gsour@newsandsentinel.com