The billionaire Eron Mask and his young silicon volleyball engineer have accessed IT systems, from the Ministry of Finance to the Small and Medium Enterprise Bureau.
The problem is that no one except the Trump administration really knows that the newly created government efficiency bureau (DOGE) mask and his team are planning their access.
Under the name of clarifying and trimming fat, they are now controlled by millions of American personal information and non -party career staff who are currently preserved in the government database. It has a new influence on the important parts of the federal bureaucrats. It is clear that the mask has extraordinary access to government data, but it is not clear how much he can do. The most prominent is the Watchdog and Democratic members of the Diet, suspecting that the final game of the mask is not only the visibility of the government's payment, but to control them.
This is all part of the clouds of confusion surrounding DOGE.
The White House's press, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed on Monday that MUSK is working on his ability as a non -sated “special government employee.” , And the rules of strict interest dispute are less than other federal officials. Lebit did not give detailed details about what the mask is working on, but he argued that he is “angry with all applicable federal law.”
The claim is subject to legal scrutiny.
The litigation department of the public citizen, which is a consumer rights advocate organization on the left, appeals to the Trump administration on Monday on Monday, on behalf of workers whose personal information is stored in the Ministry of Finance's database, and the authorities provide DOGE access. He argued that he broke the privacy method. Other groups have raised similar privacy concerns about the database of other federal agencies that mask teams are seeking access.
Adamschwalz, the privacy litigation director of the Digital Rights Advocator, Adamschwalz, has reported a “extraordinary access” to a government database, including delicate personal information about millions of Americans. He stated that it showed “great deviation from privacy and security.” Standards. “
“Legal protection means must be strictly implemented,” he said. “EFF is deeply worried and is learning as much as possible.”
The Watch Dog Group has also demanded more transparency for Doge's first reasons for accessing these government IT systems. One fear is that DOGE can use new access to the federal payment system to reduce budgets without parliamentary approval.
The Ministry of Finance wrote in a letter to Congress on Tuesday that the mask has at least “read -only” access to the payment system. However, Noahbook Binder, an executive director of the government monitoring group citizen for Washington's responsibilities and ethics, said that if he gained an operation control, the mask was “regular maintenance and technology. He was skeptical to use the access only.
What we know and don't know about mask access
Masks and his team are rapidly seeking access to various government agencies and office IT systems, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Human Resources Management Bureau (OPM), and the SME management (SBA).
Last week, DOGE demanded and gained access to the Ministry of Finance's payment system, which handles delicate payments such as social security and med care customers, and Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Finance resigned.
DOGE has also said that it has closed a carrier public servant from the OPM computer system, which contains the personal data of the federal employees and contractors. Federal government employees called for temporary inhibition orders to reduce sensitive employee information to shut down a private server connected to the OPM network on Tuesday.
SBA employees were notified on Monday that DOGE, such as HR, contract, and settlement systems, is allowed to access “all SBA systems”. The agency has supported more than 100,000 funds to small and medium -sized enterprises last year alone.
However, the mask and his team have not yet publicized what they intend to do with all the data.
Don Moinihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan and a co -director of a better government research institute, states: A government that improves social safety net access. “We go before the parliament, and don't explain in detail what these people are actually doing, and why it is not a security risk, but rely on these leaked reports. I am.
Why is the mask trying to penetrate the government?
Efforts for masks and his team to control the IT system throughout the government raises concerns about privacy and conflicts of interest. They may also give the mask, a political appointment, to interfere with the management of the federal budget set by Congress.
Currently and former government officials argued that the Trump administration was sued on Monday, and that allowed data to disclose data to his team and his team had violated the Privacy Law.
“Federal law protects delicate personal information and financial information from inappropriate disclosure and misuse, including prohibiting disclosure to individuals who do not have legal and legitimate needs,” said the complaint. ” “The size of the invasion of individual privacy is large and unprecedented.”
Same concerns can also apply to other federal organizations IT systems that DOGE tried to access. For example, SBA holds business owners and business health.
Masks as a business owner may benefit from that kind of information personally. Lindsay Owens, an executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive advocate organization focusing on economic policy, states:
But probably the most worrisome thing is that access to Musuku's financial payment system can have an excessive effect on the federal budget when there is an imminent debt limit.
The current developed Lubricks and his non -party career finance staff will usually determine the default risks by the government carefully tracking the payment system. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) warned of Finance Scott Bessent on Tuesday, and said that the system was “high risk of defaulting debt and the risk of defaulting our debt. High. ”
Bessent tried to sedery members' concerns at a private meeting with the GOP conference on Monday, but then publicly guaranteed that the mask had only “read -only” access to the payment system.
However, if Musk gains an operation access, it may give him a unilateral tool to cancel the payment -essentially avoid the authority to set the Congress and the Federal Budget. In particular, when the court opposes the trial of President Donald Trump, which is a freezing federal subsidy approved by the parliament, and then use a legally suspicious workaround to control the flow of federal funds, a financial payment system is provided. Using it may be attractive.
Trump tried to control the fear of how the mask could abuse his power in Douge. “Elon can't do anything without our approval and do nothing,” he told the reporters on Monday. “If there was something that I didn't have, I will inform it really fast.”
However, it hardly provides Watch Dog Group a warranty. They should ask the Congress to testify what they are doing and why they are doing what they are doing and why. Senator Warren and Ron Widen (D-OR) have requested the government's accountable bureau to investigate the decision to make the mask accessible to the financial payment system.
For Washington's responsibilities and ethics, citizens' Bookbinder states: “People should have a real transparency of what is happening, how it is happening.”
