Warner, Scott spar over DOGE Treasury access

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) sparred Wednesday over Elon Musk and his allies at the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) reported access to a sensitive federal payment system at the Treasury Department. 

“If any of your institutions suddenly let somebody into your payment system that had no background in banking, that had no understanding of money flows, that suddenly gets an ability without any screening to look at all of your customers personal banking information, I believe that would cause reputational risk,” Warner said to a group of bank executives appearing at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

“That’s exactly what’s happening in the United States Treasury at this moment in time,” he continued. 

A top Treasury official, David Lebryk, retired last week after clashing with Musk allies as they sought access to the Treasury system known as the Fiscal Service that handles 90 percent of federal payments, sparking outcry from Democrats. 

“Come on, guys, this is about the full faith and credit of the United States,” Warner added. “It is about our reputation in the world.” 

Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, pushed back on Warner’s comments, reading from a Treasury letter responding to the concerns Tuesday. The department said that a review of the payments system is underway, emphasizing that staff members will have “read-only” access to the information. 

Staff are working with Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group who the Treasury letter described as an “expert/consultant” hired as a “special government employee.” 

Warner pressed Scott on Tuesday whether he knew the identity and security clearance status of the individuals working on the Treasury payment system. 

“Do you know the identity of these individuals?” Warner said. “Mr. Krause is a known quantity, and he’s got security clearance. The other individuals, who’ve been reported in the press, do they have security clearance? Do you want that individual without a security clearance to have access to all that information.” 

Scott suggested that similar questions existed under the previous administration.

“Under the Biden administration, we had no clue who was doing what most of the time,” he said.