Elon Musk-Led DOGE Gains Access to Treasury Department Payment System

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reportedly has access to the system that disburses money on behalf of the federal government, having been given that access by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

This access to the federal payment system provides DOGE with a tool that can be used to monitor and limit government spending, including the ability to restrict the disbursement of money approved by Congress, The New York Times reported Saturday (Feb. 2), citing unnamed sources.

A top Treasury Department official, David Lebryk, had resisted allowing DOGE to access the system, according to the report. Lebryk was put on leave and then retired Friday (Jan. 31).

The members of the DOGE team who were given access to the system were made Treasury employees, passed government background checks and obtained security clearances, per the report. Treasury Department attorneys approved the granting of access.

DOGE’s gaining of access to the system is meant to support its mission of reducing government spending and to allow scrutiny of improper payments, according to the report.

Teams associated with DOGE are also seeking access to other federal agencies’ data and systems, per the report.

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, wrote in a Friday letter to Bessent that Musk’s access to the Treasury Department payment system could allow those associated with him to “illegally withhold payments to any number of programs.”

“I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission critical systems. … The federal government is in a financially precarious position, currently utilizing accounting maneuvers to continue paying its bills since it reached the debt limit at the beginning of the year. I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States,” Wyden wrote in the letter.

It was reported Friday that Lebryk, who spent decades in federal service, stepped down from his position at the Treasury Department after clashing with Musk allies over access to sensitive payment systems.

DOGE was created amid Trump’s flurry of executive orders, with the goal of updating federal software and technology to boost efficiency and productivity within the federal government.