The top House Democrat overseeing education and labor policy is demanding more information on the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to sensitive information and agency databases.
Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, has written to the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor raising allegations of possible violations of the Privacy Act of 1974, according to copies of the letters dated Feb. 21 reviewed by NOTUS.
Scott is calling on the Trump administration to outline a “detailed description of the agency databases DOGE has sought, been granted, or accessed,” as well as any sensitive data they have potentially viewed and what safety precautions have been put in place to ensure that DOGE is staying in accordance with the law.
“They have reportedly already gained access to the database containing personal information on the millions of students and parents with federal student loans, including Social Security and driver’s licenses numbers, dates of birth, and contact information for student loan borrowers,” Scott wrote in one letter to Thomas Flagg, a chief information officer at the Department of Education. “These actions could run afoul of several federal laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974, which protects Americans’ personal identifiable information. I urge you to protect the private data within your Department to the fullest extent, and to encourage all officials at the Department to do the same.”
Scott’s letters come amid a growing number of calls from House and Senate Democrats for the Trump administration to address repeated allegations that Elon Musk and DOGE recklessly exposed private information. However, his power is limited. While Scott is the top Democrat on the committee with oversight authority over these agencies, in the minority he does not have the full weight of the committee’s compulsory powers.
“We don’t know the extent of it largely,” a House Democratic aide said of DOGE’s access to potentially sensitive information. “We’ve been trying to ascertain that ourselves, and these oversight letters have been an attempt to kind of really know more.”
DOGE has reportedly accessed the Department of Education’s email and the backend of the agency’s website. DOGE has also reportedly had access to sensitive borrower information and may have fed that information into artificial intelligence systems.
The possible breaches of privacy were a point of contention during Linda McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing.
Congressional Democrats have sent many letters to the administration’s agencies sounding the alarm and seeking answers on critical issues. There have also been legislative efforts — House Democrats introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to address allegations of DOGE having access to sensitive taxpayer information, banking on disgruntled House Republicans to join them in getting the legislation passed.
Outside of an acknowledgement of receipt, the letters to these departments and to President Donald Trump have so far gone unanswered, according to the House Democratic aide. Scott gave the agencies a March 7 deadline to respond to the questions in the letter.
A federal judge on Monday blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive data in the Department of Education and in the Office of Personnel Management. Despite a stated commitment to transparency, Musk and DOGE have been accused of being less than transparent about where, when and how DOGE is operating within the federal government.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.