Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has found itself at the center of controversy after being granted “read-only” access to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Services.
In an executive order signed on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aimed to modernize federal technology and software to help with governmental efficiency and productivity. One of the privileges granted to DOGE allows it to see processed transactions including IRS tax refunds and Social Security benefits.
DOGE and Trump have focused on the Bureau of Fiscal Services which are responsible for making disbursements on behalf of the government like veterans’ benefits, Medicare payments and consumer transactions such as credit card purchases and direct payments.
DOGE’s ability to access this highly sensitive information has raised questions about whether the review by the tech billionaire is legal.
While DOGE was put in place to identify inefficiencies in the bureau’s spending, this decision has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, the judiciary and the Treasury’s internal security teams.
The Treasury responded to the allegations in a letter on Feb. 4 stating that Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, who has been leading DOGE’s review of federal payments, and Treasury staff members working with him will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen said that he personally vetted the Treasury employees on Musk’s government efficiency team, which have read-only access to federal payment data, and that there’s been no “tinkering” with the department’s payment systems, according to a post from Bloomberg on X.
A letter was sent by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to the Treasury’s deputy inspector generals and inspector general on Feb. 6 expressing concern for the confidentiality of America’s sensitive financial information.
“We are deeply concerned that unauthorized system access could be occurring across the federal government and could pose a major threat to the personal privacy of all Americans and to the national security of our nation,” the letter read.
On Feb. 7, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter to Bessent demanding the full truth while saying that the claims regarding the access being on a “read-only” basis were misleading and evasive.
Sens. Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Bernie Sanders, have also sent a letter to Deputy Inspector General Loren Sciurba, and the Acting Inspector General for tax administration, Heather M. Hill, urging for immediate investigation in this matter.
Mass protests have erupted across the United States as Musk’s DOGE pushes forward with drastic cuts to federal agencies.
On Feb. 8, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan ordered that anyone who gained access to the Treasury since Jan. 20 must delete any downloaded material, after a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from 19 states filed a lawsuit on Feb. 7.
The order cited, “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
After the order, Musk criticized the ruling on X as “absolutely insane” and questioned how fraud and waste of taxpayer money could be prevented without examining spending.
He also responded on X stating the exact reforms that the DOGE and the Treasury department had jointly agreed on to enhance government payment transparency.
According to Musk, these include requiring labels to be put on outgoing statements specifying why money is being sent and making sure payments are not sent to known fraudulent entities by enforcing a regularly updated, “DO-NOT-PAY” list.
In the same post, he pointed to the $100 billion in annual entitlement payments that have been sent to individuals without Social Security numbers calling it “suspicious.” The Trump administration hopes to address this “suspicious” spending with DOGE’s oversight of the Bureau of Fiscal Services.
When asking Treasury employees, Musk said they allegedly revealed that it involved more than $50 billion annually in fraud.
The conditions of the order given by Engelmayer will remain in place until the next court hearing on Feb. 14.
Copy edited by Aniyah Genama
