Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative has gained access to a sensitive child support database, despite objections from career civil servants.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to The Washington Post that DOGE officials have “read-only” access to the Administration for Children and Families’ Federal Parent Locator System, which contains income and federal benefits information for nearly every U.S. worker.
“ACF supports DOGE’s efforts to improve efficiency and data quality to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs,” a department official told the newspaper. “ACF will continue to assist DOGE in efforts to strengthen the programs it runs.”
It was previously reported that career staff members objected to DOGE accessing the data, which is a collection of sensitive information protected by the same federal privacy laws as Internal Revenue Service tax records.
The group is likely reviewing the records as part of a larger effort to identify duplicate or otherwise problematic government payments.
Musk, the father of at least 14 children with four different women, has also been involved in custody disputes.
In February, a New York judge ordered him to appear in court in a custody and child support dispute with right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair.
Musk was also embroiled in a lengthy custody battle with the singer Grimes, with whom he has three children.
DOGE has faced multiple lawsuits for its quick — and, critics argue, illegal — attempts to access federal payment data in order to drastically reduce government spending and identify fraud and abuse.
A federal judge refused to limit DOGE access to a Treasury Department payment system on Friday, ruling that the data had not been compromised in a lawsuit brought by labor unions and a retirees group.
The ruling had limited impact, however, because a separate federal judge in New York temporarily banned access to the system last month, though they left the door open for the ban to be lifted if DOGE members were shown to have received proper cybersecurity training.
On Friday, a group of labor unions asked a federal court in Maryland to prevent DOGE from accessing Social Security data, with a former agency official writing in an affidavit that DOGE had shown “a disregard for our careful privacy systems and processes.”
The list of DOGE employees remains largely unknown, but at least one member of the cost-cutting group, a 19-year-old, was previously fired from an internship at a cybersecurity firm after being accused of leaking company secrets to a competitor, though he has denied any wrongdoing.
DOGE’s creation and leadership structure are both causes for concern.
The Trump administration has insisted that Musk does not lead DOGE, a position that could subject Musk to additional scrutiny and ethics requirements, though the president himself stated in his joint address to Congress that the billionaire does lead the group.
A lawsuit filed against DOGE, which was formed by rebranding an executive office known as the United States Digital Service, claims the organization violates the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act’s transparency requirements.
In other news, the administration has announced that Amy Gleason, a former healthcare worker, is the acting administrator of DOGE, despite the fact that a group of two dozen recently resigned staffers stated in a letter that they were also unaware of who was running the initiative.
In a February case involving DOGE access to Department of Labor data, a judge suggested the group was attempting to “escape” the “obligations that accompany agencyhood”—including being subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act—”while reaping only its benefits.”
Others argue that Musk, who does billions of dollars in business with the federal government, is in a compromised position because of his work on DOGE, regardless of whether he is the group’s symbolic or actual leader.