Treasury and White House Set Boundaries on DOGE's Use of IRS Information
The initiatives related to DOGE at the IRS coincide with the Trump administration's aggressive plans to significantly decrease the size of the tax collection agency.
TroibNews 
The Treasury Department and the White House have finalized an agreement that places limits on how the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can access sensitive tax data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as confirmed by two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
One source characterized the deal as a memorandum of understanding that incorporates “all protections” and prohibits DOGE from accessing individual taxpayer information.
Concerns about DOGE's potential access to taxpayer records, which the IRS protects rigorously, have raised significant alarms among congressional Democrats. Unions and taxpayer advocacy organizations have also initiated a legal challenge, asserting that the Treasury Department is violating various federal privacy and taxpayer confidentiality statutes. Some Republicans have also expressed apprehensions about DOGE's access to sensitive information.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has defended the work of DOGE within the agency, describing it as a committed effort to enhance operational efficiency and eliminate fraud and waste. He contended that critics are targeting DOGE because its rapid actions disrupt the established order in Washington and pose a threat to vested interests.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Bessent noted that a DOGE employee at the IRS was examining the agency’s “outdated IT system” and accused critics of the initiative of engaging in “fear-mongering.” He added that DOGE employees involved with Treasury payment systems “have no ability to touch anything” and emphasized that there are “guardrails around them.”
The agreement between the White House and Treasury regarding DOGE’s access to IRS data, originally reported by the Washington Post, comes amid other ongoing legal disputes concerning how tech mogul Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation can access additional Treasury databases containing sensitive personal and financial information.
Bessent’s choice to permit DOGE team members to access Treasury’s payment system, which oversees more than $5 trillion of federal payments annually, also triggered a wave of backlash in the early days of the administration.
Currently, Treasury is under a broad injunction from a federal judge in Manhattan, preventing any DOGE employees and most political appointees from accessing the payment system. An additional order from a federal judge in Washington further restricts access. The Trump administration is contesting these restrictions in court, which Republicans and the White House have criticized as judicial overreach affecting their administrative capabilities.
Spokespeople for the White House and Treasury Department did not respond immediately to requests for comments.
In filings related to the Washington case, the Treasury Department stated on Thursday that it is adding another member to the DOGE team examining the federal payments system, as well as two unspecified staffers focusing on the IRS.
Treasury announced that Ryan Wunderly will be stepping in for Marko Elez on the agency’s DOGE team. Elez was assessing the federal payments system at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service before resigning earlier this month following the emergence of racist social media posts.
John York, a senior advisor to Bessent, indicated in a sworn statement that Wunderly would assume Elez’s responsibilities concerning the federal payments system. Wunderly will report to Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, who is leading Treasury’s DOGE team and also serves as Treasury’s acting fiscal assistant secretary overseeing the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
The DOGE initiatives at the IRS coincide with the Trump administration's efforts to significantly downsize the tax collection agency. The administration commenced steps on Thursday to terminate over 6,000 IRS employees, a move expected to impact the agency’s tax enforcement capabilities most severely.
During the White House press briefing on Thursday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended the large-scale job cuts at the IRS.
“Our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective,” he stated. “There are many, many — more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes, and not all of them are fully occupied.”
Irie Sentner contributed to this report.
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
One source characterized the deal as a memorandum of understanding that incorporates “all protections” and prohibits DOGE from accessing individual taxpayer information.
Concerns about DOGE's potential access to taxpayer records, which the IRS protects rigorously, have raised significant alarms among congressional Democrats. Unions and taxpayer advocacy organizations have also initiated a legal challenge, asserting that the Treasury Department is violating various federal privacy and taxpayer confidentiality statutes. Some Republicans have also expressed apprehensions about DOGE's access to sensitive information.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has defended the work of DOGE within the agency, describing it as a committed effort to enhance operational efficiency and eliminate fraud and waste. He contended that critics are targeting DOGE because its rapid actions disrupt the established order in Washington and pose a threat to vested interests.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Bessent noted that a DOGE employee at the IRS was examining the agency’s “outdated IT system” and accused critics of the initiative of engaging in “fear-mongering.” He added that DOGE employees involved with Treasury payment systems “have no ability to touch anything” and emphasized that there are “guardrails around them.”
The agreement between the White House and Treasury regarding DOGE’s access to IRS data, originally reported by the Washington Post, comes amid other ongoing legal disputes concerning how tech mogul Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation can access additional Treasury databases containing sensitive personal and financial information.
Bessent’s choice to permit DOGE team members to access Treasury’s payment system, which oversees more than $5 trillion of federal payments annually, also triggered a wave of backlash in the early days of the administration.
Currently, Treasury is under a broad injunction from a federal judge in Manhattan, preventing any DOGE employees and most political appointees from accessing the payment system. An additional order from a federal judge in Washington further restricts access. The Trump administration is contesting these restrictions in court, which Republicans and the White House have criticized as judicial overreach affecting their administrative capabilities.
Spokespeople for the White House and Treasury Department did not respond immediately to requests for comments.
In filings related to the Washington case, the Treasury Department stated on Thursday that it is adding another member to the DOGE team examining the federal payments system, as well as two unspecified staffers focusing on the IRS.
Treasury announced that Ryan Wunderly will be stepping in for Marko Elez on the agency’s DOGE team. Elez was assessing the federal payments system at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service before resigning earlier this month following the emergence of racist social media posts.
John York, a senior advisor to Bessent, indicated in a sworn statement that Wunderly would assume Elez’s responsibilities concerning the federal payments system. Wunderly will report to Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, who is leading Treasury’s DOGE team and also serves as Treasury’s acting fiscal assistant secretary overseeing the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
The DOGE initiatives at the IRS coincide with the Trump administration's efforts to significantly downsize the tax collection agency. The administration commenced steps on Thursday to terminate over 6,000 IRS employees, a move expected to impact the agency’s tax enforcement capabilities most severely.
During the White House press briefing on Thursday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended the large-scale job cuts at the IRS.
“Our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective,” he stated. “There are many, many — more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes, and not all of them are fully occupied.”
Irie Sentner contributed to this report.
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
