DOGE Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System–What to Know

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The Treasury Department has confirmed in a letter to Congress that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff will be given “read-only” access to the Fiscal Service Bureau’s nearly $6 trillion federal payments system.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently granted DOGE access to the vital federal government payments system.

Scores of Democratic lawmakers appeared at a “Nobody Elected Elon” rally outside the Treasury Building in Washington on Feb. 4. They expressed concerns about the possibility of cybersecurity risks, missed payments, and politically motivated meddling.

“We have got to tell Elon Musk: ‘Nobody elected your [expletive]. Nobody told you you could get all of our private information. Nobody told you, you could be in charge of the payments of this country,'” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Hours later, the letter from an unnamed Treasury official clarified DOGE’s involvement in the payments system.

The Trump administration’s advisory commission—headed by Elon Musk and established to reduce waste, slash regulations, and eliminate inefficiency—will have “read-only access” to the payments system, also known as the Fiscal Service, according to the official.

The Fiscal Service handles 88 percent of all federal payments, totaling more than 1.2 billion transactions annually, including Medicare and Social Security payments.

Staff will work with an “expert/consultant” listed as a “special government employee” at the Treasury named Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, the letter said. This review aims for the Fiscal Service to ensure operational efficiency that can prevent abuse, fraud, and waste. This will be done in collaboration with career Treasury officials.

“This is similar to the kind of access that Treasury provides to individuals reviewing Treasury systems, such as auditors, and that follows practices associated with protecting the integrity of the systems and business processes,” the letter reads.

The Treasury official added that the Fiscal Service’s review “has not caused payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed.”

“To be clear, the agency responsible for making the payment always drives the payment process,” the official said.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Feb. 3, President Donald Trump said: “Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it, but he has some very good ideas.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the Treasury Department for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

‘Never Denied a Payment’

Meanwhile, Musk says that progress has already been made.

According to the SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO, DOGE has uncovered that the Treasury’s payment approval officers “were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.”

“They literally never denied a payment in their entire career,” Musk said in a Feb. 1 post on social media platform X. “Not even once.”

Still, a plethora of organizations and public policymakers have questioned DOGE’s access.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, does not believe that Musk and his team only have viewing access to this information, stating that “an unelected, unaccountable billionaire” now has access to the country’s “most sensitive financial data system.”

Congressional Democrats protest DOGE's access to payment data, outside the Treasury Building in Washington on Feb. 4, 2025. Nathan Worcester/The Epoch Times

Several advocacy groups, such as the Alliance for Retired Americans and the Service Employees International Union, filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department over the legality of this access. They say the department’s data-sharing efforts breached the Privacy Act of 1974.

“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the complaint states. “People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his ‘DOGE.’ And federal law says they do not have to.”

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee member, submitted an amendment to the Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act. The bill would determine it a violation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act for an individual to gain unauthorized access to the Fiscal Service.

“This access creates serious privacy and cybersecurity risks and could even enable Musk to give his companies an unfair competitive advantage,” Markey said in a statement.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, an organization that promotes privacy and freedom of expression in the information age, condemns DOGE’s access and calls it “unprecedented breaches of personal data.”

However, if the appropriate steps are taken to ensure that the data is observed by “need-to-know individuals,” then there should not be an issue, says Lawrence Pingree, the vice president of cybersecurity firm Dispersive Holdings.

“As long as the DOGE’s responsibilities include the need to know, and the organizations granting access are doing so in a manner that considers that access principle, I don’t see an issue,” Pingree told The Epoch Times. “DOGE is a new function the government has created, so from my perspective, it may need access to systems and data to carry out their directives.”

Several media reports indicated that DOGE members attempted to obtain access to secure government spaces, suggesting that classified materials were at risk. Other reports say Musk and his DOGE aides installed commercial services to access federal human resources databases.

Top DOGE adviser Katie Miller dismissed both reports.

“No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” she wrote on X.

“There’s nothing illegal and no server, just more made up tall tales from uniformed career bureaucrats who probably telework,” Miller said in a separate social media post.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers thinks it is a balancing act, stating that if DOGE’s influence can remedy outdated government systems, it “could be a welcome development.”

“If it’s being used to violate the law about Congress’ ability to appropriate money, or if it’s being used to target particular beneficiaries, that would be something that would be highly problematic,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Feb. 4.

DOGE Lists the Savings

DOGE, which is scheduled to disband in July 2026, has secured various savings victories.

In recent days, Musk and his young team of engineers have announced $26 million in savings from the termination of 20 consulting contracts focused on “strategic communication” and “executive coaching.”

It also confirmed on X the elimination of $45 million in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) scholarships in Burma, commonly known as Myanmar.

Last month, DOGE highlighted a Government of Accountability Office document that revealed at least $161.5 billion in improper federal payments in 2024.

According to the U.S. Debt Clock, a running tally of the U.S. government’s finances relying on federal data, as of Feb. 5, DOGE has generated more than $60 billion in savings.

While this is a step in the right direction, one expert says Congress can also assist in DOGE’s crusade to stop the misuse of taxpayer resources.

“As DOGE seeks to crack down on improper payments, it will need Congress’s help to ensure lasting improvement,” Rachel Greszler, an economist at the Economic Policy Innovation Center, said in a Feb. 3 report.

“Congress can assist by enabling better data access, creating a Fraud Czar, holding agencies accountable, and reducing the scope of federal programs and payments.”