Two Senate Democrats called for an investigation Tuesday into tech billionaire Elon Musk’s access of Department of Treasury payment systems.
“We write to ask that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct an investigation of reports indicating that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Elon Musk and other ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ employees unprecedented access to the federal government’s payment systems on January 31, 2025,” a letter from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) head Gene Dodaro reads.
“These reports are deeply troubling. These critical systems process trillions of dollars of transactions each year and contain sensitive personal and financial information for tens of millions of Americans,” Wyden and Warren continued.
David Lebryk, a top Treasury Department nonpolitical career official, retired at the end of last week in the wake of him butting heads with Musk allies on government payment systems, a source previously told The Hill.
Lebryk’s retirement followed a clash over a request from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for access to a payment system used by Treasury officials to disburse funds.
Warren also sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday pushing to know what access Musk had been given to the federal payments system, as well as safeguards put in place to guard Americans’ private data and prevent abuses.
“In addition, the access provided to Mr. Musk and his team has important privacy implications for millions of Americans,” the Oregon and Massachusetts Democrats said. “The Treasury payment systems include ‘sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government.’ It is not clear why these individuals were granted unfettered access to such data, what they could do with it once inside these systems.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House, the GAO and the Treasury Department for comment.
