Huffman, Dexter Demand Probe into Cybersecurity Failures at Musk-Run DOGE
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting the government watchdog investigate the Musk-led United States DOGE Service (DOGE), citing serious concerns about its access to sensitive data, weak internal safeguards, and personnel with questionable track records.
“The security of these systems and data is vital to public confidence and national security,” wrote Ranking Members Huffman and Dexter. “Given the scope and sensitivity of the information at stake, we request that the Government Accountability Office evaluate how the United States DOGE Service and affiliated agency personnel are accessing, handling, and protecting federal systems and data and whether appropriate safeguards and oversight mechanisms are in place.”
The lawmakers stressed that the information at risk includes “high-value assets”—systems so essential that their loss or compromise could cripple agency operations. These assets reportedly include satellite imagery, systems controlling power generation from federal dams, and U.S. Geological Survey data on oil production. If misused, the oil information alone could facilitate insider trading. The agencies also maintain trade secrets from private companies and deeply sensitive personnel information, such as biometric data, medical records, and passport numbers for over 112,000 employees.
“DOGE employees appear to have access to usernames, passwords, login credentials, port numbers, IP addresses, and server names from across the agency,” the lawmakers wrote. “All three agencies carry out law enforcement operations, increasing the risk that officer identities and other sensitive data could be exposed,” the lawmakers added.
The letter outlines several disturbing personnel issues. One DOGE staffer was removed after making racist statements online—yet was reinstated following pressure from Vice President JD Vance and DOGE head Elon Musk. Another, Edward Coristine, was previously fired by a cybersecurity firm for leaking company secrets. According to the letter, “Coristine wrote that he’d retained access to the cybersecurity company’s computers… [and] refused to apologize or admit wrongdoing, stating that he did ‘nothing contractually wrong.’” The lawmakers cited reporting that Coristine had supported a cybercrime gang and sought out information on cyberattacks.
Federal officials have already flagged DOGE’s presence as a serious security risk. According to an internal Treasury Department email, “Continued access to any payment systems by DOGE members, even ‘read only,’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”
The lawmakers also raised alarms about DOGE’s handling of artificial intelligence tools. “DOGE associates have been feeding vast troves of government records and databases into artificial intelligence tools, looking for unwanted federal programs and trying to determine which human work can be replaced by AI,” the letter states. The use of these tools without vetting or adherence to federal cybersecurity standards, they argue, puts government data at even greater risk.
The lawmakers called on GAO to immediately evaluate whether DOGE and its affiliated agency personnel are complying with federal laws and information security protocols, and to determine the scope and use of the data DOGE has accessed.
Background
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established by President Trump in early 2025 and led by Elon Musk—who now leads the agency while simultaneously running a private tech empire. Marketed as a crusade against waste, DOGE has instead become a wrecking ball aimed at the federal government itself. Under the guise of “efficiency,” DOGE has slashed essential services, gutted staffing at key agencies, and plunged critical functions—like Social Security and healthcare grant systems—into chaos. Programs that working families rely on are now paralyzed, while Musk’s team of tech loyalists run roughshod over established cybersecurity protections, funneling sensitive government data into unvetted AI tools and other unknown destinations.
What started as a stunt has quickly morphed into a dangerous, unaccountable operation—targeting agencies Musk and MAGA allies have long viewed with contempt. From interfering with public health to choking off foreign aid, DOGE is less a government agency and more a political weapon, wielded by billionaires and ideologues who want to dismantle public service from the inside out.
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