Warren, Senate Democrats Demand Secretary Bessent Address ‘DOGE’ Chaos at Treasury; Push for Independent Inspector General Investigation of Treasury Secretary’s Role
Treasury’s response to senators evaded key questions, conflicted with publicly available information about DOGE access; Warren calls on Bessent to give straight answers about the integrity of the Department of the Treasury’s payment systems
Text of members’ letter to IGs (PDF) | Text of Warren letter to Bessent (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and other members of those committees wrote to Deputy Treasury Inspector General Loren Sciurba and Acting Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Heather Hill calling for an independent investigation into reports that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent granted Elon Musk and his surrogates unprecedented and potentially illegal access to the federal government’s payment systems. The senators made the request following a recent public response from Secretary Bessent that evaded key questions and conflicted with publicly available information about DOGE’s attempts to access private and other data. In light of that response, the senators underscored the need for an independent investigation into whether Secretary Bessent or anyone else at the Department violated any laws, regulations, or policies that govern conflicts of interest or protect the confidentiality and handling of sensitive personal information.
Senators Warren and Wyden wrote to Secretary Bessent earlier this week seeking information about the facts underlying these disturbing reports. But Secretary Bessent’s response raised more questions than it answered, failing to provide even basic information about whether access had previously been extended to anyone beyond Treasury employees — such as individuals working for Mr. Musk and DOGE. The response also failed to address whether those with access had more than “read only” access before the public outcry about the potentially unlawful intrusion of the payment system at the Department. In its response, Treasury also assertedthat the access granted has been focused on conducting “a review of [the] systems to maximize payment integrity for agencies and the public.” But reporting from theNew York Times contradicted Treasury’s claim, revealing that there was an effort to give DOGE affiliates “access to the closely held payment system so that the Treasury could freeze U.S. Agency for International Development payments.” Today, in a separate letter, Senator Warren again pressed Secretary Bessent for straight answers to basic questions.
In addition to personal and financial information about individuals, the Treasury systems contain confidential information about government contract payments and nonpublic details about the operation of the payment system itself. Two of Mr. Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have received more than $15.4 billion over the past decade. Mr. Musk could benefit from access to this system by obtaining payment information on competitors and theoretically having “control over whom the government does business with.” Mr. Musk’s company X has also announced that it plans to work with Visa to launch a new payments system this year. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that “Elon Musk will excuse himself from any conflicts of interest between his various business interests and his efforts to cut from the federal government.” The senators emphasized that statement “falls far short of alleviating these concerns about Mr. Musk’s access.”
“No individual can effectively and objectively police themselves, and it would be irresponsible of the Department to allow any individual access to these critical systems without proper oversight,” wrote the senators. “Given the threats to the economy and national security, and the potential violation of laws protecting Americans’ privacy and tax data posed by Mr. Musk and his team’s reported access to critical federal payment systems…we request that you use your authorities to investigate this matter further,” the lawmakers concluded.
In light of the incomplete and inadequate explanations provided by Treasury, the senators asked TIGTA to independently assess the types of payment systems accessed, the information in those systems, the steps taken to protect sensitive information, whether the White House put pressure on Treasury officials, and the extent to which Secretary Bessent or others violated any laws, regulations, or policies that govern conflicts of interest or protect the confidentiality and handling of sensitive personal information.
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