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Lawmakers Warn of Security Risks as DOGE is ‘Running Roughshod’ in Federal Systems
Democratic U.S. lawmakers raised objections to a federal task force under the tutelage of mercurial multi-billionaire Elon Musk obtaining access to key federal data systems and called for investigations into apparent security violations that gave Musk aides access to troves of Americans’ data.
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Democratic members of the House Homeland Security committee wrote Wednesday that the “Department of Government Efficiency” is “running roughshod across federal networks, accessing untold amounts of information about Americans in complete disregard for security and privacy standards.” DOGE is not a federal department. Rather, it is a technology unit within the White House previously known as the U.S. Digital Service.
“We know that China and other foreign adversaries are regularly seeking to breach Federal agency networks to gather exploitable information about government officials, American citizens, and U.S. businesses,” the letter read. “That is why the U.S. government has implemented numerous policies and programs to secure sensitive data.”
“Elon Musk and his DOGE associates are not exempt from those policies,” the lawmakers added.
Democratic senators on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Wednesday that “no information has been provided to Congress or the public” about who has been formally hired under DOGE “before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans’ personal information.”
“There are strict cybersecurity controls for accessing federal networks, which DOGE does not seem to be following,” reads a letter to the White House. Musk associates have reportedly connected personal devices to sensitive government systems.
The Department of Treasury said Tuesday said that a tech executive from DOGE would be provided “read-only access” to federal payment systems, but that did little to quell critics. The growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers comes after Musk’s aides kicked senior career employees out of Office of Personnel Management data systems, according to reports, with experts warning the move creates cybersecurity and hacking implications that could expose millions of Americans’ sensitive information (see: Elon Musk Access to Key Data Systems Sparks Cyber Alarms).
An Tuesday memo from acting OPM director Charles Ezell could make it easier for Musk associates to assume formal government technology positions within federal agencies. The memo instructs agencies to reclassify the position of CIO as a “general” position open to political appointees, a switch from the position’s current designation as “career reserved,” a label that limits it to the civil service.
“When an agency CIO makes policy choices about which of these topics to prioritize and fund – and which should be deemphasized or defunded – the CIO determines government policy in important ways,” the memo states.
404 Media reported Tuesday that Musk associate Thomas Shedd, now director of technology transformation services at the General Services Administration, discussed modifying the government single-sign on service Login.gov to integrate with sensitive systems such as social security in a bid to detect fraud. The former Tesla engineer floated modifying the system without consent. Civil servants at the meeting told him that would be illegal, 404 Media reported.
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., introduced Wednesday a resolution of inquiry directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to provide the committee with information surrounding the impact of President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze on the cyber workforce and how DOGE managed to reportedly access DHS information systems and data.
“Only two weeks since taking office, President Trump has apparently allowed his co-president Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, to have unfettered access into Federal networks and is accessing Americans’ sensitive personal data,” Thompson said in a statement sent to reporters announcing the resolution.
The Federal Aviation Administration may the latest governmental entity to become a DOGE objective after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tweeted Wednesday “Big News – Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
The White House defended Musk’s access to federal data systems Wednesday, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters during a media briefing that Democratic leaders “don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
As Trump campaigned, he vowed “that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency,” Leavitt said, “and the two of them, with a great team around them, were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers.”
“That’s all that is happening here,” she added.