“The ongoing review of Treasury’s systems is not resulting in the suspension or rejection of any payment instructions submitted . . . by other federal agencies across the government,” Jonathan Blum, a principal deputy assistant secretary, wrote to members of Congress on Tuesday.
Blum said Treasury staff members working with emissaries from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) had been given limited, “read-only” access to the system, which disburses trillions of dollars each year, including social security payments.
Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee, had written to the newly installed Treasury secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers on Musk’s access, saying: “I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”
In his response on Tuesday, Blum said a “review” of payments was being conducted by Cloud Software Group chief executive Tom Krause, a Doge emissary who has now become a “special government employee”.
Krause was “conducting this effort in co-ordination with veteran career Treasury officials, and all operational processes continue to be conducted only by career Treasury staff in accordance with all standard security, safety and privacy standards”, Blum added.
Don Hammond, a former longtime Treasury official, said that while he was not aware of the precise nature of the access granted to the Doge team, “improper access could affect payment integrity and sensitive data”.
Hammond said “a non-federal employee would have no accountability” for the actions they took when in charge of the payments system. But Hammond added that “the representations in the letter if accurate are reasonable and do reflect past practice”.
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