The Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed Wednesday to limit the number of employees affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who have access to a sensitive federal payment system at the Treasury Department.
Two “special government employees” who already had access to the system known as the Fiscal Service will maintain read-only permissions, according to a proposed order filed as part of a lawsuit brought by several unions against the Treasury Department.
Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez will continue to have access to the Fiscal Service but will not be able to edit or make changes to the system, which handles 90 percent of federal payments.
The order, approved by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday morning, will hold while the judge considers whether to grant the unions a preliminary injunction.
The Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union sued Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the agency Monday to block Elon Musk and other DOGE-affiliated employees from accessing the system.
The unions accused Bessent of improperly disclosing sensitive personal and financial information to Musk’s allies, whose efforts to access the payment system had previously been rebuffed by a top Treasury official who later resigned.
“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the unions wrote. “Millions of people cannot avoid engaging in financial transactions with the federal government and, therefore, cannot avoid having their sensitive personal and financial information maintained in government records.”
“Secretary Bessent’s action granting DOGE-affiliated individuals full, continuous, and ongoing access to that information for an unspecified period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords,” it continued.
