Democrats Alarmed By DOGE Access To ‘Sensitive Databases’ At Education Department

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other lawmakers pressed the Education Department on Wednesday to clarify how much access Elon Musk’s team had been granted to student loan borrowers’ sensitive data and what they planned to do with it.

In a letter to acting Education Secretary Denise Carter, Democrats said the agency had provided “woefully inadequate” information about who was using the data and to what end. They said the Education Department’s written response to their questions earlier this month raised “new concerns” about what Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is up to.

“The Department refused to confirm or deny whether DOGE had been granted access to the National Student Loan Data System or other databases with sensitive federal student loan data,” Warren wrote in the letter, joined by 14 other Democrats.

DOGE’s access to the data is now the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by veterans and labor unions alleging the Trump administration violated the Privacy Act by sharing social security numbers and other sensitive information without consent.

A judge in that case issued a restraining order Monday blocking Musk’s team from accessing the information, saying the unions were likely to succeed in their argument that the White House broke the law.

The Washington Post reported on Feb. 6 that DOGE was taking personally identifiable Education Department data and feeding it into artificial intelligence software to analyze the agency’s spending. Agency leaders had directed staffers to turn the data over to the DOGE personnel, according to the Post.

Senate Democrats have asked the Education Department for a detailed accounting of what it shared. According to Warren’s letter, the agency said it was helping Musk’s team to “identify possible efficiencies” in federal contracts related to student aid.

But Warren accused the agency of being “evasive” about DOGE’s use of its financial management system, or FMS, and a student aid database known as PartnerConnect.

“Alarmingly, the Department also disclosed that the one ‘employee’s access to the FMS and Partner Connect systems has since been revoked,’ raising questions about what happened and why the employee was no longer allowed to view the data,” Warren wrote.

Unions and other groups have filed a barrage of lawsuits as DOGE and Trump’s Office of Personnel Management pursue sweeping cuts across the federal government, including a funding freeze, grant cancellations and mass firings. The concern revolves not just around layoffs but DOGE’s use of data and whether the privacy of workers, retirees and borrowers could be violated.

Trump’s Treasury Department was also sued for granting Musk’s team access to the systems that handle Social Security and Medicare disbursements and federal contractor payments. A judge in that case recently extended an order blocking DOGE from accessing the systems.

“There is a realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed,” the judge wrote.