The Alliance for Retired Americans, along with two employee unions, sued the Treasury Department to halt Elon Musk, the newly appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency advisory team, from accessing Treasury’s payment systems.
“Federal laws protect sensitive personal and financial information from improper disclosure and misuse, including by barring disclosure to individuals who lack a lawful and legitimate need for it,” according to the Feb. 3 lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The Alliance for Retired Americans, along with the American Federation of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union, allege that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent broke federal law when he gave Musk and other members of the efficiency advisory team access to Treasury’s payments systems, which consist of “sensitive personal and financial information” about anyone who has made a financial transaction with the government.
The systems’ records include millions of individuals’ “Social Security numbers, birth dates, birth places, home addresses and telephone numbers, email addresses, and bank account information,” according to the lawsuit, which contends that the “scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented.”
The lawsuit, filed by lawyers from Public Citizen Litigation Group and State Democracy Defenders Fund, specifically names Bessent, the Treasury Department and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which manages federal payments and collections, as defendants.
Ultimately, the lawsuit asks the court to stop the defendants from continuing to share such information with Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, declare the decision to do so unlawful, and ensure that future disclosure of individual information follows applicable federal laws.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In response to recent news of Musk’s access to such information, several Democrats in Congress have spoken out against the move.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a Feb. 4 news conference that he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., are working on legislation “to stop unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department's payment systems.”
“We must protect people's Social Security payments, their Medicare payments (and) tax refunds from any possible tampering by DOGE or any other unauthorized entities,” Schumer said, adding that the newly created Department of Government Efficiency “is not a real government agency.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said at the same news conference that “unqualified and unaccountable people have seized control of the flow of taxpayer funds and a trove of extremely sensitive data.”
“They are seizing the tools you need for a coup,” Wyden added.