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A federal judge has partially blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department’s financial systems following a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions over privacy concerns.
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that DOGE workers could only have “read-only” access to the data at the Treasury Department after the unions’ attorneys argued that the access violated privacy statutes. The unions are represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.
President Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, with rooting out waste as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk subsequently took his mission to the Treasury Department. The lawsuit against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanded that the court put an “immediate stop” to what plaintiffs described as the “systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records.”
Judge Kollar-Kotelly allowed the DOGE only the ability to read the data but forbade Bessent from allowing access to “any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.”
Musk has faced criticism for his actions to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Democrats have accused him of acting unconstitutionally, particularly for shutting down offices like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“What is happening here is illegal,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “This is an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress.”
In response to the controversy, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) announced he would place a “blanket hold” on all Trump State Department nominees to protest the actions taken against USAID.
