WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Department of Government Efficiency is turning to Elon Musk‘s social platform X to tackle what it deems waste within federal departments like the Internal Revenue Service.
The move comes as Musk’s team faces major pushback from Congress over DOGE’s request to access an IRS system containing sensitive taxpayer data.
What has DOGE recovered?
DOGE claims it has already recovered funds across the federal government and is putting a price tag on its so-called savings.
Additionally, the department claims it has discovered thousands of dollars in subscriptions to newspapers, millions going toward diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across several agencies, and millions for programs that provide digital modernization to schools through the Department of Education.
On its website, DOGE estimates it has saved around $55 billion by eliminating waste across at least 10 agencies through measures such as:
- Slashing fraud
- Renegotiating contracts
- Canceling grants
- Reducing workforce numbers
- Implementing program changes
DOGE is now asking for the public’s help finding perceived waste, fraud or abuse in the federal government. It has launched over 30 different accounts on X dedicated to gathering ideas for cuts.
DOGE has also been reaching out to various agencies, including the IRS, seeking access to systems used by federal agencies.
Concerns over DOGE having access to taxpayer data
As tax season begins, with approximately 140 million Americans expected to file their returns, DOGE is focusing heavily on the IRS system, known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System, that the agency uses to access millions of sensitive taxpayer files.
This has raised concerns among Democrats, who argue Musk and his team should not have access to such private information.
Defending DOGE’s efforts, the White House states, “Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”
However, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are raising concerns over privacy and security risks, and have sent a letter to IRS acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, writing, “Software engineers working for Musk seeking to gain access to tax return information have no right to hoover up taxpayer data and send that data back to any other part of the federal government and may be breaking the law if they are doing so.”
Pushback has continued, with a federal judge expected to issue a decision on a lawsuit related to the issue Tuesday.
