On Feb. 6, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly signed an order temporarily limiting access to the Treasury systems, with the order dictating that two employees — Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, an engineer who worked for Musk’s SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter — will temporarily have “read only” access while the judge considers the plaintiffs’ request for a broader temporary restraining order, according to Bloomberg.
Later on Feb. 6, Elez resigned from his role on Musk's efficiency team following the discovery of racist posts from a now-deleted X account tied to him, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The lawsuit raised concerns about granting access to individuals’ “sensitive and personal information” within the payment systems, about which House lawmakers had similar concerns.
“Why does Elon Musk and his minions need access to the names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates and bank account information of millions of Americans?” Jeffries said at the news conference.
“We are introducing the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to shield the American people from this out-of-control power grab permanently, and to make sure that the financial, personal, medical and confidential information of the American people is protected,” Jeffries added.
Specifically, the bill states that the Treasury secretary “may not allow any individual to use, exercise administrative control over, or otherwise access any Department of the Treasury public money receipt or payment system … or any data from any such system” unless the individual is “an officer, employee or contractor” of the department; the individual is “otherwise eligible to access such system or data”; their most recent performance rating “was at the fully successful level or higher”; and they’ve been with the department for at least one year.
For anyone who does not fit those qualifications, they must hold a proper security clearance, have completed any required training, and have signed a written ethics agreement, among other things. The bill specifically states that an individual gaining access to Treasury systems cannot be a “special government employee,” which Krause is, according to a Feb. 4 letter the Treasury Department sent to Congress.
The legislation also calls on the inspector general of the Treasury Department to investigate any improper sharing of access to Treasury’s payment systems and submit a report to Congress on such an investigation.
