The Treasury Department has given Elon Musk and representatives of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team access to the vast federal payment system responsible for handling trillions of dollars in government expenditures, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Jonathan Karl, Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders, ABC NewsThe payment system is essentially a checkbook for the federal government.The Treasury Department has given Elon Musk and representatives of his Department of Government Efficiency team access to the vast federal payment system responsible for handling trillions of dollars in government expenditures, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The payment system -- which is essentially a checkbook for the entire federal government -- is a closely held operation run by career officials, with a limited number of people authorized to access the information given it contains sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans. The demand for access to the payment system reportedly caused such a rift inside the Treasury Department that the career official who previously oversaw it, David Lebryk, was placed on administrative leave last week after he resisted granting Musk and his government efficiency team access to the database.If Musk or his team were to attempt to block these payments, it would likely face legal challenges given the money is approved by Congress.USAID staffers told to stay out of Washington headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to close it Sources said that if Musk or his representatives were to request that changes be made to the system, such requests would be subject to an internal review process by Treasury Department officials. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said that any "politically-motivated meddling" in the payment systems "risks severe damage to our country and the economy." "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. 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 illegally withhold payments to any number of programs," Wyden wrote in a Friday evening letter. "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," Wyden wrote.Copyright © 2025 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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