Democratic lawmakers and campaigners have criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, run by Elon Musknow, for having access to a government payment system that handles $6 trillion in federal payments annually, including Social Security and Medicare benefits.
However, the Treasury Department stated in a recent letter to Congress that those benefit payments have not been postponed or redirected as a result of the recent event.
According to reports last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave DOGE, an entity in the president’s executive office, access to the government payment system. Finding strategies to save federal spending and boost government efficiency is the responsibility assigned to DOGE.
Concerns regarding the implications for the continuation of federal funds and access to Americans’ private information have been voiced by Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote on X on Monday that the move is extremely hazardous because millions of Americans depend on these systems for Social Security checks, Medicare benefits, federal salaries, grants, and tax refunds.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare said that Social Security recipients had every reason to be concerned.
“It all depends on what they [at DOGE] think is efficient and what isn’t,” stated Dan Adcock, the national committee’s director of government relations and policy.
According to him, these programs are the lifelines of millions of individuals nationwide, including seniors with disabilities.
According to the national committee, under Musk, the government might be able to halt payments for Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, and Social Security Disability Insurance.
“This could also have an impact on payments on foreign aid and federal contracts,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative.
For us, the notion that a private individual who was not elected or confirmed by the Senate possessed the Treasury payment system and had access to the financial and identifying information of Americans is a five-alarm inferno, Owens said.
Speaking on background, a White House official asserted that many of the assumptions about the potential implications of the shift are incorrect.
According to the White House official, DOGE only wants to reorganize the payment system to better represent the President’s objectives and mission, particularly with reference to the executive orders.
According to the official, the president’s executive order does not conflict with any payments made to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue.
Furthermore, only government workers with the appropriate security clearance will be able to access personal financial data, the official stated.
A Treasury Department official wrote to members of Congress on Tuesday, stating that payments for obligations like Social Security and Medicare have not been postponed or redirected as a result of the ongoing assessment of the Fiscal Service, which runs the federal government’s payment systems.
Additionally, to continue this operational efficiency review, Treasury employees collaborating with Treasury employee Tom Krause will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service’s payment systems, the official added. Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, was employed by the Treasury Department after previously working for DOGE.
Federal worker ‘buyout’ may impact Social Security
The Trump administration has given buyouts to federal employees, allowing them to leave while still receiving their salaries through September. Federal employees can accept the resignation offers until Thursday.
A representative for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management stated that although reports indicate that at least 20,000 government employees have taken buyouts, that figure is not up to date.
A representative for the Office of Personnel Management stated in an email that the number of deferred resignations is increasing quickly and that the biggest increase is anticipated to occur 24 to 48 hours prior to the deadline.
In a letter to the Office of Personnel Management this week, a group of Democratic senators expressed concern that the policy would have a detrimental effect on the Social Security Administration, which is already facing staffing lows that have not been seen in 25 years.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in a statement that Trump’s buyout offer would have disastrous effects on the tens of millions of Americans who depend on Social Security.
According to the Senators’ letter, the Social Security Administration has historically had trouble delivering necessary services on schedule. The average wait time for Social Security phone service in 2024 was forty-five minutes. The average wait time for disability benefit determinations was 230 days in 2023.
Through March 14, all government agencies are funded under a continuing resolution. Adcock says it’s up to Congress after that.
The Social Security Administration has stated that the implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act, a new law that will enhance monthly benefit checks and make lump-sum back payments to over 3 million Americans who also receive public pensions, will take time.
According to the agency’s website, even though SSA is currently providing assistance to a few impacted beneficiaries, the agency anticipates that it may take more than a year to adjust payments and pay all retroactive benefits within its present budget.
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