INC: House Dems Raise Alarm Over DOGE’s Access to SBA Systems, Fearing Musk Could Target Entrepreneurs
House Democrats this week slammed the reach of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and how it purportedly has received unchartered access to the Small Business Administration’s systems.
In a letter addressed to the SBA’s Acting Administrator, Everett Woodel, lawmakers aired concerns over DOGE recently gaining entry into the agency’s human resources, contract, and payment systems. It’s currently unknown who greenlit the access.
DOGE, which has begun to slash the size of the federal workforce, is notably going after agencies that, much like the SBA, are highly autonomous. This week, Musk and President Donald Trump moved forward to shutter the United States Agency for International Development, an independent agency, and murmurs have grown about closing the Department of Education. Legal experts, though, contend that shutting down USAID is not constitutional, which poses the threat of future legal pushback.
With DOGE now sifting through the SBA’s programs, Democratic lawmakers are concerned that key SBA aid to the country’s millions of entrepreneurs could be at stake. DOGE claims to have already cancelled one DEI-related contract at the SBA that it says was worth $553,792, according to a post from the account on X.
“We are deeply concerned that allowing [DOGE access to] sensitive information could not just harm our nation’s small employers by eliminating critical services but also create an anticompetitive environment,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “Allowing an unelected billionaire and his associates to gain access to SBA’s systems and proprietary information could allow him or any inexperienced aides to target entrepreneurs.”
The lawmakers underscored Trump’s attempt last week to freeze a majority of federal grants and loans, which was ultimately blocked by a federal judge before being eventually rescinded.
Granting DOGE sweeping access to the SBA’s systems poses a security threat as well, the lawmakers argued, and could result in a breach of sensitive information not just for the nation’s entrepreneurs who interface with the agency but also those institutions that partner with the SBA, like lenders.
And while it’s been widely reported that Musk would lead DOGE, there hasn’t been a formal confirmation from the White House that names the South African-born technologist as its head. Plus, with the recent directive from the White House to let go of a slew of Inspectors General, including SBA IG Mike “Hannibal” Ware, there isn’t a figure installed to watchdog any agency cuts.
“It is alarming that sensitive personal information, including names, addresses, business returns, and banking information could not only be compromised but also downloaded onto new servers or integrated into a database accessible to unauthorized users,” the lawmakers wrote.
House lawmakers are demanding answers about what specific systems were made available to Musk and his team, who granted the requests, the identities of DOGE workers at the SBA, and which jobs are at stake, among other things.
The letter is signed by Representatives Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), Hillary Scholten (D-MD), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Kelly Morrison (D-MN), George Latimer (D-N.Y.), Derek Tran (D-CA), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH).