Union groups have sued the US Treasury, accusing it of breaking federal laws by giving Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency enforcers access to sensitive financial and personal information.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the country’s largest union group, sued the Treasury and Secretary Scott Bessent in a Washington, DC, federal court on Feb. 3 to stop what it alleged is an “unlawful ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information” to Musk and DOGE.
“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the AFL-CIO said. “People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his ‘DOGE.’”
The lawsuit is the latest challenge to Donald Trump’s promise to cut federal spending. He put Musk in charge of the effort with DOGE, seemingly an homage to Dogecoin
DOGE$0.2614
, which the billionaire has mentioned in the past.
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The complaint cited a Feb. 1 Bluesky post from US Senator Ron Wyden, which said that sources had told his office that “Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access” to the Treasury’s payments system. A day earlier, Wyden had demanded answers from Bessent over Musk DOGE’s access to the system.
The payments system at issue includes “names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, birthplaces, home addresses and telephone numbers, email addresses, and bank account information” of millions of members of the public, according to the suit.
It comes as top Democrats, including the party’s Senate leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren, held a press conference on Feb. 3 to air concerns over Musk and DOGE’s access to the Treasury systems.
Schumer said that he’d be introducing legislation “to stop unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department’s payments systems.”
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“DOGE is not a real government agency,” he added. “It has no authority to make spending decisions. It has no authority to shut programs down or ignore federal law.”
Warren said the system “is now at the mercy of Elon Musk,” who “has the power to suck out all that information for his own use.”
The Treasury and the US DOGE Service (USDS), the parent agency of DOGE, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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