A representative from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now works at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where they have been given access to contracting systems as well as information on VA operations and information technology systems.
Rumors began circulating Tuesday that DOGE representatives visited the VA on Tuesday with an intent to mine data on disability compensation and benefits.
But in response to questions from Military.com over DOGE activities at the VA, a VA spokesman said the department has a single DOGE employee who is "specifically focused on identifying wasteful contracts, improving VA operations and strengthening management of the department's IT projects."
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"The DOGE employee will be solely focused on improving VA performance and efficiency and will not have access to veterans' or VA beneficiaries' data," VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz said in an email.
Over the weekend, DOGE representatives and billionaire Elon Musk accessed Treasury Department systems that are used to make U.S. government payments and hold the Social Security numbers for nearly every American, including military personnel and veterans.
The unfettered access to sensitive personal data has alarmed privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts who question the legality of allowing non-departmental personnel entry to financial information, bank accounts and more.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that Musk's access to Treasury Department databases gives him access to information that includes addresses, bank accounts and disability benefits.
"Veterans risked their lives to defend this country, and they deserve more than to have unaccountable billionaires playing with the benefits they earned and rely on," Blumenthal wrote in a statement on Monday.
Members of Congress on Tuesday began raising concerns that Musk or his representatives at DOGE visited the VA with the intent to access all data from the VA to discern disability ratings and payments to veterans, diagnostic codes for health conditions and more.
The Veterans Health Administration oversees the medical treatment of veterans and the Veterans Benefits Administration is the VA's compensation arm.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., issued a press release Wednesday, saying she had heard that DOGE "may have barged into VA today."
"Musk and his associates already have the personal financial information of every veteran receiving disability or education benefits because of their illegal data mining at the Department of Treasury. Will they now look at private health records of veterans? What else will they do that could put the health and safety of our veterans at risk?" Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in the statement.
Murray joined 22 other Democrats Tuesday in voting against the nomination of VA Secretary Doug Collins. Collins won handily in a 77-23 vote, but Murray, a former chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said she could not vote for him while President Donald Trump "dismantles government and breaks the law."
Trump signed an executive order Jan. 20 remaking a small government body that was charged with improving and streamlining federal websites, the U.S. Digital Service, into DOGE.
Wired reported that DOGE largely is staffed by 19- to 24-year-olds with previous connections to Musk's companies, and by Musk's own description, the entity aims to stop what its staff considers wasteful spending.
"Obviously, DOGE is trying to stop your tax dollars from being stolen for waste and fraud," Musk posted Tuesday on his social media platform X.
Musk, the world's richest man, was a key funder of Trump's election campaign and has been given unprecedented and potentially illegal access to sensitive systems in the federal government, apparently with Trump's OK. Neither Trump nor Musk has the authority to dismantle agencies and funding created by Congress.
Musk and his DOGE team already took control of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, by shutting out workers, freezing funding and removing leadership, depriving millions of people around the world of sometimes life-saving aid.
On Monday, the White House told The New York Times that Musk's team's access to the Treasury Department system is "read only," meaning they cannot make changes or stop payments themselves.
Alan Butler, executive director and president of the nonprofit advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Military.com that nonetheless, the access is concerning.
"That is still a massive invasion of privacy, first of all, and still imposes significant ongoing risks," Butler said. "Because 'read' includes the ability to exfiltrate data. ... All of this just exponentially increases the odds that this data gets breached, that people's private information is breached, that national security is breached."
The VA maintains that DOGE will not have access to veterans' personal data and the department will help streamline the VA.
"VA looks forward to working with DOGE to improve services to veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors," Kasperowicz said in his statement.
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