Elon Musk’s DOGE has been granted access to a sensitive child support database by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The landmark move was approved by the HHS, now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite protests from career employees within the department, according to the Washington Post.
The huge government database contains swaths of personal income data from Americans across the country, and it was initially created with the intention of enforcing child support payments.
An HHS official told the Post that DOGE agents requested ‘read only’ access to the database, and were required to take ‘necessary trainings’ before they were allowed into it.
The official said the Administration for Children and Families, which oversaw the database, ‘supports DOGE’s efforts to improve efficiency and data quality to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs.’
‘ACF will continue to assist DOGE in efforts to strengthen the programs it runs,’ the anonymous official said.
Insiders reportedly saw DOGE’s access of the child support database as part of its efforts to crackdown on wasteful federal payments to Americans, with their attempts to access IRS data previously halted by federal law.
The child support database may offer similar information on tax records and federal benefits that could highlight duplicate or fraudulent payments that may have been previously missed by the separation of huge federal agencies.
The Department of Health and Human Services, now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., granted DOGE access to a sensitive child support database this week
HHS’s granting access to the database to Elon Musk’s DOGE comes amid criticism of the controversial new agency and the billionaire’s slash-and-burn approach to cutting spending
According to HHS insiders who spoke with the Post, a career civil servant protested allowing DOGE agents into the child support database, but that person has since left the department.
Civil servants in multiple agencies have objected to DOGE’s efforts to obtain sensitive government data since Donald Trump re-took the White House, amid fears the new department could overstep important safety guardrails.
DOGE was reportedly especially interested in accessing a component of the child support database known as the National Directory of New Hires, which shows hiring data nationwide.
The controversial new government agency has sparked backlash for its ‘chainsaw approach’ to cutting government spending, with critics claiming legitimate, needed government programs have been slashed alongside waste.
After being rebuffed by the IRS as some opponents argue DOGE may recklessly access sensitive data, the department claims accessing such databases is necessary to root out issues deep within the federal government.
As DOGE’s access to the child support database was reported on Friday, Democrats urged the department to fully explain the move and reveal how many Americans ‘have had their confidential information received or accessed.’
‘It is essentially an end-run around the confidential taxpayer information protected by the IRS,’ Congressman Richard Neal told the Post.
Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote a letter to RFK Jr. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging the White House to lead with transparency.
‘No one, including DOGE, should be rummaging around in the confidential information of private citizens at any agency where the protected information resides,’ Neal added.
It appeared this week that Trump heard criticisms of Musk’s slash and burn approach as he told his cabinet leaders they are in charge of their departments’ staff, not Musk
The widespread cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s DOGE have sparked protests in recent weeks
The widespread cuts pushed by Musk’s DOGE have sparked protests in recent weeks, as opponents lament the mass firings across the federal government and slashing of support.
It appeared this week that Trump heard criticisms of Musk’s slash-and-burn approach as he told his cabinet leaders that they alone are in charge of hiring and firing employees within their departments, not Musk.
‘DOGE has been an incredible success, and now that we have my Cabinet in place, I have instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing,’ Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
The president abruptly assembled his Cabinet on Thursday amid rising scrutiny over how much power Musk wields over the U.S. government.
It appears Trump told his top leaders that they need to be more selective if they continue to conduct clear-outs of their workforce.
He said that instead of taking a ‘hatchet’ approach, secretaries should instead use a ‘scalpel’ for ‘surgical’ precision over who they dismiss.
In one of RFK Jr.’s early moves as HHS Secretary, he granted Musk’s DOGE access to sensitive child support payment data
The news from HHS comes just days after the agency controversially announced that the CDC will study the potential link between vaccines and autism.
Two sources told Reuters the agency is planning a large study into the long disproven connection.
However, it is unclear whether newly appointed health secretary RFK Jr., who has long been skeptical of vaccines, is involved in the planned study or how it would be carried out.
The bombshell move comes amid one of the largest measles outbreaks in US history, with more than 150 cases across the country and two deaths in Texas and New Mexico.
Experts believe the outbreak has been fueled by declining vaccination rates in parts of the US.
Kennedy, whose role includes authority over the CDC, has long sowed doubt over the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, along with Covid shots made by Pfizer and Moderna.
However, he did make a U-turn move earlier this week when he urged people to get the shot to prevent measles.