WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Department of Government Efficiency is turning to Elon Musk's X to tackle what it deems waste within federal departments like the Internal Revenue Service.
This 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's discovered thousands of dollars in subscriptions to newspapers, millions going toward diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across several agencies, and even yanked-backed 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 and implementing program changes.
Taking things further, DOGE is asking for the public's help to find 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 that federal agencies use.
Concerns over 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 (IDRS), that the agency uses to access millions of sensitive taxpayer files.
This has raised concerns among Democrats, who argue that Musk and his team shouldn't 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, Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are raising concerns over privacy and security risks, sending 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."
The pushback continues with a federal judge expected to issue a decision on a lawsuit related to this issue on Tuesday.
Source:
www.newsnationnow.com
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