Democratic Senators have issued warnings about the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk after employees of the department attempted to access confidential computer systems at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke about DOGE at a press conference on Monday alongside Democratic Senators Patty Murray, Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren.
"This is the most corrupt Administration in our history and it's putting our economy, our government and our most at-risk communities in serious jeopardy," said Murray at the conference. "We are pursuing every action that we think we can do. But I will tell you this, we are here to pull the fire alarm. We are pulling the fire alarm. It is up to Republicans who are the majority in Congress, who are passing these nominations, who are sitting silently by while Elon Musk goes into departments, into agencies and takes your information."
"Musk and his associates were granted access to the US Treasury's payment systems the same weekend they threatened their way into United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and seized Office of Personnel Management (OPM) computer systems," a release announcing the press conference said.
"If you want to know how an unelected shadow government operates look no further than DOGE," said Schumer. "DOGE staffers, whomever they are, now have unprecedented access to the most sensitive payment data in the entire federal government with no transparency with no guard rails."
On Sunday, officials part of DOGE attempted to physically enter USAID offices and access classified materials despite not possessing the appropriate security clearance, reported CNN.
Musk has repeatedly taken to X, the social media platform he owns, to criticize USAID, even stating that President Donald Trump has agreed the agency needed to be "shut down".
"With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down," Musk said in a X Spaces conversation on Monday.
"USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die," he said in another post, despite there being no evidence of criminal activity conducted by the agency.
Trump has repeatedly attempted to shut down USAID in order to follow through on campaign promises in which he guaranteed reduced government spending. The effort to decrease such spending, which is heavily influenced by Musk, has impacted many federal agencies and employees, who were offered incentives to resign in a mass email sent to them by Trump's administration.
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