Natalie Alms reports:
The Department of Government Efficiency is building a single, cross-agency database of sensitive information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies, according to new, whistleblower-informed oversight on Capitol Hill.
The effort is “unprecedented,” said a Thursday letter the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., sent to SSA’s watchdog, whom he’s asking to open up an investigation.
DOGE’s work may run afoul of privacy law, the letter said. Experts that Nextgov/FCW spoke with agreed.
Already, associates of the government-slashing initiative led by Elon Musk have accessed sensitive data across numerous agencies even as federal employees object, resign or are fired in the process.
There are at least fourteen lawsuits alleging violations of federal privacy protections across agencies, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology.
Now, the DOGE team is building a single, cross-agency master database by combining sensitive information from various agencies, according to whistleblower information Democrats on the House’s oversight committee say they’ve received.
“It’s terrifying,” said John Davisson, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which sued the Office of Personnel Management and Treasury Department in February over personnel records and payment system data that was taken.
Read more at at NextGov.
(Note) Everything is so politicized these days that it’s really hard to know what reporting is accurate or credible and what has been distorted by political biases — Dissent.
h/t, Joe Cadillic