Some of the Senate’s most notorious GOP privacy hawks are shrugging off moves by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to access Americans’ sensitive taxpayer data.
It’s a sharp turn for lawmakers who often carp about intrusions on individual privacy, and just the latest example of how Republicans are willing to forgive an unelected billionaire set on shattering institutional norms.
In this case, Musk is seeking to give his team the ability to look up personal information on an IRS system that contains broad individual financial records along with information from the Social Security Administration.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a frequent critic of Big Tech’s use of Americans’ personal data, said Tuesday night that DOGE employees were required to “follow all federal laws related to privacy and so forth” and he would be “shocked” if they were skirting those rules.
“I assume and expect that they are adhering to whatever the rules are for their level of clearance and their level of government employee and their designation,” Hawley said, adding that he did not know the security clearance status of DOGE’s staff. “So long as they’re adhering to those, that’s fine.”
But DOGE’s move to access IRS data has prompted real questions about its lawfulness — and a legal challenge. Democrats have raised alarm that the Trump administration could be looking to leverage government databases against Americans whose activities they oppose, while a group of organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit that would block Musk and his associates from obtaining information from the tax agency.
The White House has argued DOGE is simply trying to prevent fraud. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with Fox News, said Musk’s team was working within “guardrails” to modernize “an outdated IT system,” and Americans “don’t have to be concerned about any of this.”
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, another defender of individual privacy rights and opponent of government surveillance efforts, also appeared like Hawley to be taking the administration at its word that there was nothing out of the ordinary taking place.
“I think anybody who looks at government data is bound by rules on privacy — I don’t know how this would be any different than someone else looking at it,” said Paul in an interview. “All the rules of privacy still apply. If they’re breaking any rules, they’ll get in trouble, but you have to look at the data to find the problems.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune conceded that “there certainly are concerns when it comes to the privacy of personal information,” but also said, “I don’t think it’s unusual that a White House or administration … would have access to these type of records.”
One Senate Republican, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, cast aside concerns around privacy for the sake of the administration’s ability to “get rid of all the fraud … instead of worrying about our information.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
