Unions AFGE, SEIU & Advocacy Group ARA Sue Treasury Department for Data Protection Breach to Musk’s DOGE

Labor unions AFGE and SEIU along with advocacy group Alliance for Retired Americans sued the Treasury Department for breaching data protection by allowing access for Elon Musk’s non-department Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE is a subteam under a White House IT group, not a government department. It is acting across government departments to take over government systems and departments.

The Department of the Treasury maintains an immense trove of sensitive financial and personal data about most Americans, which is pertinent to its payments for such obligations as Social Security benefits, Medicare and federal contract bills. Federal law prohibits improper disclosure or misuse of this data. Disclosure to anyone who does not have a legitimate legal need for it is barred by law.

The suit asserts that, as widely covered by media, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent punished officials who attempted to protect Treasury data from improper access. Bessent gave DOGE full access to it. Musk’s team now has control of the federal government’s main payment systems.

American Federation of Government Employees, Service Employees International Union and Alliance for Retired Americans jointly sued, demanding immediate cessation of the “systematic, continuous, and ongoing violation of federal laws that protect the privacy of personal information contained in federal records.”

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