Elon Musk’s Team Given Access to Treasury’s Payment System

On February 1, 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, access to the federal payment system. This system manages payments for the entire federal government, and now Musk’s team has a powerful tool to monitor and possibly limit government spending.

This shift comes after a disagreement with David Lebryk, a Treasury official who opposed allowing Musk’s team into the payment system. After the dispute, Lebryk retired on Friday. This new access could allow the Trump administration to control how and when money, approved by Congress, is paid out, even though there have been legal issues with such actions in the past.

His team has been directed to find the ways of lowering government spending, reducing the size of the federal workforce, and making the government more efficient. They have therefore focused on analyzing the payment system of the Treasury Department with a view of identifying improper payments. Musk’s team can access this system at the moment, but they can’t block the payments yet.

The Department of Government Efficiency is not an official government department but a team created by President Trump, with Musk leading it. The team’s goal is to make government processes more efficient, and they have been seeking access to data from other government agencies as well.

This payment system of the Treasury is so important because it deals with over $5 trillion in payments each year, which include Social Security checks and tax refunds. In most cases, access to the system is restricted because it deals with sensitive information regarding millions of Americans.

The political appointees, like the team of Musk, could gain access to the payment system, and this may potentially cause problems for the Democrats. They warn that interference from politics may bring harm to the financial systems of the country. Senator Ron Wyden voiced his concerns, mentioning that some of the payments handled by Musk’s team can be competitive with companies of his own.

This situation raises the growing controversy over the government’s control over the federal payment systems and private industry’s intrusion into government.