Cybersecurity Policy Report, DOGE’s Access to Treasury’s Systems Prompts Questions From Warren, Wyden, (Jul 21, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:General Services Administration
Two Senate Democrats want to know whether the Treasury Department intends to enact measures to prevent unauthorized access to its payment systems following reports that personnel from the White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) accessed those systems without following security protocols.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, today sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ask whether he intended to implement recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office and Treasury’s inspector general (IG).
Senate Democrats requested the GAO and IG reviews amid reports that unvetted DOGE personnel were allowed to access payment systems maintained by Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) without undergoing the necessary training or adhering to the department’s cybersecurity and privacy rules (CPR, Feb 14, 2025).
“Access to Treasury payment systems is highly controlled—and for good reason. Treasury’s systems contain Americans’ sensitive payment information and most federal agencies use BFS systems to process payments, making ‘the integrity and security of these systems … critical to the nation’s economy,’” the senators said, citing GAO’s report.
“Yet according to GAO, the Treasury Department—under your leadership—failed to ensure that a DOGE employee agreed to follow Treasury’s IT security rules,” they told Mr. Bessent.
“Treasury provided a DOGE employee with improper ‘access to view, copy, and print data for the three payment systems’ for over a year. This employee had the ability to view the source code of Treasury systems and was also ‘granted temporary access to create, modify, and delete data,’” they recalled.
“In other words, not only could this employee view Treasury’s sensitive financial information, but for a short period of time, they also had the ability to delete information and introduce inaccuracies into the system. This employee also sent unencrypted payment information regarding foreign aid to the General Services Administration (GSA); this security violation potentially exposed Personally Identifiable Information (PII) associated with over 350 individuals,” they noted.
They set an Aug. 4 deadline for Mr. Bessent to respond to their questions about, among other things, the information that DOGE personnel accessed, his justification for giving DOGE personnel access to Treasury’s systems, and whether he intended to implement the 15 recommendations of GAO and the IG.
“We seek information on the Department’s efforts to ensure that such a breach has been repaired and never occurs again,” Sens. Warren and Wyden said. “It is essential that Congress fully understand the extent of DOGE’s improper access to federal payment systems and any threats to the systems posed by this improper access.”
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