It is unclear why an unelected billionaire and his staff need access to the Treasury’s back office hardware and database, but obtaining the information required the removal of career Treasury official David Lebryk and his replacement by Donald Trump's appointee Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
According to the New York Times, Lebryk challenged Musk’s team over their access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service system, which pays more than $6 trillion annually.
Senator Ron Wyden wrote on social media over the weekend that Musk’s access to the database gives him control of Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, and payments to government contractors, including those competing directly with Musk's companies.
"Americans don't want an unelected and unaccountable billionaire dictating what working families can and cannot afford."
Former Labour Secretary Robert Reich said: "An unelected billionaire, with no actual congressional authority or government experience, now has access to Treasury payment systems and sensitive information about millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds, and other payments. What could go wrong?"
Musk’s efficiency committee also locked career civil servants out of a computer system run by the Office of Personnel Management that contained federal employees' personal information.
The news heightens fears that Musk and the Trump administration are attempting to gain authoritarian control over the federal government by ousting or sidelining career civil servants and Congress, which has the constitutional authority to decide how the government should spend its money.
On Friday, Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter demanding answers from Bessent when reports emerged that Musk's team had tried to access the system.
"To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy," Wyden wrote: "I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to withhold payments to any number of programs illegally. 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."
Representative Pramila Jayapal wrote: "Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, is rooting around in Social Security and Medicare payment systems. He's reaching his hands into our pockets and firing anyone who tries to stop him. This reeks of corruption—it must stop,"
People familiar with the situation told The New York Times that no payments had yet been blocked and that the DOGE team's stated mission was to review payments, not to stop them. Musk suggested in a social media post that he was looking for inappropriate expenditures and that blocking funds might be appropriate.
"The DOGE team discovered, among other things, that Treasury payment approval officers were always instructed to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once."
However, that is because the system is not geared to do much else other than pay people after other agencies have made decisions about refusal. Don Hammond, who once ran the system, told The Wall Street Journal that, while certain automatic safeguards were in place, Treasury was not responsible for approving or rejecting specific payments.
"Legally, if you want to stop a payment from taking place, the place to do that is at the agency level," Hammond said.
Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens wrote: "The Treasury system makes the payments. It doesn't decide who to pay or how much. It's a little like an employer using a payroll processor. Musk has infiltrated the system to stop payments. It's a coup."
In an op-ed published by MSNBC, Owens discussed her concerns in greater detail, outlining three reasons why Musk might want access to the Treasury payment system.
He could use it to stop payments to certain programs to circumvent the courts' block on the administration's spending freeze.
He could access the list of blacklisted federal contractors in order to boost his own or his friend's companies and harm his competitors. (According to The New York Times, one of those granted access to the payment system, Tom Krause, is also a Big Tech CEO who leads Cloud Software Group.)
He could use it to reduce Social Security or Medicare payments as part of his goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.
Owens noted Musk wasn't "chasing these cuts for their own sake. He's helping congressional Republicans attempt to pay for a new round of tax breaks for corporations and the ultrawealthy—including Musk himself."
"It's nice to believe in a fantasy in which Musk and DOGE work alongside civil servants to improve technology and services for Americans and save a few bucks along the way. But all evidence points to the contrary," Owens continued.
"The richest man in the world, whom no one elected to any government position, is seeking unprecedented access to confidential information, including information about his business interests, and seems hell-bent on cutting off as much funding as possible for the programmes that matter to the rest of us."
Owens said: "Americans don't want an unelected and unaccountable billionaire dictating what working families can and cannot afford. If Musk continues running the government like one of his failed businesses, perhaps someone should force his 'resignation' too."