Elon Musk’s advisory commission, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has deployed teams within multiple federal agencies to use technology to cut costs and streamline processes.
Moving at breakneck speed within the opening weeks of the second Trump administration, Musk’s engineers and advisers have accessed information technology (IT) systems in at least three federal departments.
DOGE’s actions, which Musk says are aimed at reducing government spending and waste, have spurred a backlash from some Democratic lawmakers who describe it as a breach of congressional oversight by an unelected “special government employee.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) cited cybersecurity concerns if DOGE is connecting to federal databases with “their own unvetted commercial servers.”
This week, during a House Oversight Committee on “Reducing Waste in Government,” Rep. James Comer (R-K.Y.) defended Musk’s unprecedented role in the executive branch, saying “real innovation isn’t clean and tidy.”
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7 defended DOGE’s access to federal data systems.
“We’re going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money … being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value,” Trump said during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“I’m very proud of the job that this group of young people … [are] doing. They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
So far, the DOGE team has accessed IT systems at agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while a coalition of labor unions has sued to block access at the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Epoch Times could not independently confirm other agencies—including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Agency for International Development—where DOGE may have received access to internal systems or databases.
Treasury Department
The Treasury Department confirmed in a Feb. 4 letter to Congress that DOGE staff had been given “read-only” access to the agency’s nearly $6 trillion federal payments system.
The Fiscal Service Bureau processes 88 percent of all federal payments, totaling more than 1.2 billion transactions yearly, including Medicare and Social Security payments.
According to the letter, Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause will work with the agency as a “special government employee” to review the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for operational efficiency and prevent abuse, fraud, and waste. The work will be done in conjunction with career Treasury officials.
Several Democratic lawmakers joined protesters outside the Treasury Building in Washington on Feb. 4, citing the possibility of missed payments, politically motivated influence, and cybersecurity threats.
“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,’” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said.
The following day, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing that it would, for now, restrict DOGE’s access to Treasury Department payment systems.
“The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the Justice Department wrote in the filing, adding that special government employees would have “read-only” exceptions to access that bureau’s information.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
DOGE was also granted access to systems and technology at CMS, the agency said on Feb. 5.
“CMS has two senior Agency veterans—one focused on policy, and one focused on operations—who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency wrote in a statement.
CMS, which is within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare is a health insurance plan for older and disabled Americans, while Medicaid covers low-income enrollees. Together, they provide health insurance coverage for more than 140 million people.
“We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump,” the CMS statement reads.
Musk, referencing The Wall Street Journal report that first highlighted DOGE’s access at CMS, stated that “this is where the big money fraud is happening” in a Feb. 5 post on social media platform X, which he owns.
While DOGE has said it wants to cut $2 trillion in government spending, the goal would likely be difficult to reach without reducing spending on health and social assistance programs.
Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance subsidies made up 24 percent of the 2024 federal budget, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
However, Trump told reporters last week that there would be no impacts on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security unless his administration finds waste or abuse.
“The people won’t be affected,” Trump said, referring to recipients of those benefits.
Trump reiterated on Feb. 7 that Social Security would “not be touched.”
His administration had allegedly found illegal immigrants on both Social Security and Medicare and would “find out who they are and take them out,” Trump said.
“We’re not going to touch [Social Security] other than to make it stronger. But we have people that shouldn’t be on, and those people we have to weed out.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
DOGE has also been granted access to NOAA’s IT systems through the Department of Commerce, according to several Democratic lawmakers.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee—whose jurisdiction includes NOAA—confirmed that DOGE had accessed the agency’s IT systems.
Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), ranking members of the House Natural Resources Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, respectively, also confirmed DOGE’s access.
Huffman and Lofgren penned a Feb. 4 joint statement on DOGE’s probe into the NOAA.
“Elon Musk and his DOGE hackers are ransacking their way through the federal government … and gutting programs people depend on,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Now they have reached NOAA where they’re wreaking havoc on the scientific and regulatory systems that protect American families’ safety and jobs.”
NOAA is the “principal federal agency tasked with understanding and predicting changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
Huffman and Lofgren noted that Americans rely on NOAA’s services “day in and day out” for warnings on “incoming severe weather, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes.”
Part of the Commerce Department, NOAA is home to the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, which are critical tools for weather forecasting and warning residents in vulnerable areas about approaching storms.
Department of Energy
After reports surfaced alleging DOGE staffers are probing the U.S. Department of Energy, agency Secretary Chris Wright confirmed the development in a Feb. 7 interview with CNBC. He rebutted allegations that Musk’s people had access to U.S. nuclear secrets.
“I’ve heard these rumors. They’re like seeing our nuclear secrets. None of that is true at all,” Wright told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.
The Department of Energy manages the nation’s nuclear infrastructure and implements U.S. energy policy. The agency also funds scientific research into energy, while one of its central responsibilities is maintaining and modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
Wright said three DOGE staffers are now working in offices at the Energy Department.
“I know exactly who they are,” Wright told CNBC. “They run through, checked by our security, and they have access to look around, talk to people, and give us some good feedback on how things are going.”
After anonymously sourced reports accused the agency of giving a young DOGE representative access to Energy Department IT systems, Wright said the DOGE staffers present “don’t have anybody’s proprietary information.”
Other Developments
A coalition of labor unions sued the U.S. Department of Labor, its acting secretary, Vince Micone, and Musk on Feb. 5, alleging that DOGE plans to illegally access the agency’s computer data.
The coalition also alleges that DOGE intends to “fire any employee who protects the integrity of those systems” and that Musk would have access to information on Labor Department investigations into his business dealings.
“At every step, DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data collected and stored on hundreds of millions of Americans,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington. They are seeking a temporary restraining order or an administrative stay against DOGE.
On Feb. 5, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Musk would stay out of matters where he has conflicts of interest.
The Labor Department, according to its website, “administers federal labor laws to guarantee workers’ rights to fair, safe, and healthy working conditions, including minimum hourly wage and overtime pay, protection against employment discrimination, and unemployment insurance.”
The University of California Student Association sued the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 7, alleging that DOGE staffers are illegally accessing confidential student data.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington federal court, accuses DOGE of violating federal privacy laws by accessing Education Department computer systems containing student financial aid information.
The group filed the lawsuit after anonymously sourced reports alleged DOGE was accessing agency data containing personal information for millions of financial aid recipients. The Epoch Times could not independently confirm those reports.
DOGE did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Andrew Moran, Stacy Robinson, Zachary Stieber, and Reuters contributed to this report.