WASHINGTON – More than two dozen Democratic senators on Thursday demanded that Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins deny Elon Musk and his surrogates at the Department of Government Efficiency access to millions of veterans’ private records.
“Today, we call on you to immediately secure any personal and related information regarding veterans provided by VA or other agencies to Elon Musk and associates under the auspices of the ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’” reads a letter to Collins led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee.
“Further, we call on you to deny and sever their access to any VA or other government system that includes information about veterans, and to require them to immediately and permanently delete any information in their possession,” said the senators.
A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here’s a copy of their letter:
The senators’ letter comes two days after DOGE staffers were seen hanging aroundat the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., immediately prompting concerns that they may have been meddling in the private data of military veterans and agency employees.
Musk has been leading DOGE since President Donald Trump announced its creation late last year with the stated goal of cutting costs across the federal government and rooting out fraud. But so far, Musk and his team at DOGE, which Trump designated as a replacement for the U.S. Digital Service, have been proceeding recklessly, politically and possibly illegally.
The Trump administration is facing at least two lawsuits after it granted DOGE staffers access to huge amounts of personal information in governmental databases. Musk, the world’s richest man, is operating as a “special government employee,” a designation allowing him to work for 130 days without being subject to certain ethics and disclosure rules.
Last week, federal employees at the Office of Personnel Management sued the government for allowing Musk to install a private server at the agency and access sensitive records without being vetted or approved. OPM’s systems include personal records for tens of millions of current and former federal workers.
In another Monday lawsuit, union groups sued the Treasury Department for giving DOGE workers “full access” to the government’s payment systems. These systems include the personal data of millions of people, including names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, birthplaces, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and bank account information.
Amid the lawsuits, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee appealed directly to Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, with warnings that DOGE is creating serious national risks by allowing unvetted, 20-something-year-old staffers to gain access to highly sensitive government information.
The letter to Collins on Thursday is an effort to prevent DOGE from getting this kind of access to veterans’ data.
“Our nation’s veterans have entrusted their health records, including genetic samples, disability data, bank information, and other private information, to VA,” said the senators. “Veterans risked their lives to defend our country, and they deserve better than to have an unelected billionaire reviewing their medical records, targeting the benefits they have earned, or using their private information for personal gain.”
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Other senators who signed the letter to Collins include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Veterans Affairs Committee members Patty Murray (Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.).