1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

The request from Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access the IRS's Integrated Data Retrieval System, which contains personal tax information of millions of Americans, raises significant privacy concerns. Granting unfettered access to this sensitive data to a political appointee like Musk, who has criticized federal workers without evidence and seeks to advance his own business interests, could lead to severe misuse and exploitation of Americans' private financial details. This move by DOGE appears to overstep its mandate and lacks proper oversight mechanisms. As a government agency, DOGE should be subject to congressional oversight to ensure transparency and accountability in its operations. The potential risks of exposing taxpayer data to unauthorized individuals or entities are too grave to ignore. Stringent safeguards must be in place to protect the confidentiality of personal tax information, as mandated by law. It is imperative that Congress exercises its constitutional authority and launches an immediate investigation into DOGE's request for IRS data access. Musk and relevant DOGE officials should be called to testify and provide justification for their actions. If proper justification cannot be established, Congress must take decisive action to block DOGE from accessing this sensitive database to uphold the privacy rights of American taxpayers. The mishandling of personal data by a government agency is unacceptable and necessitates robust congressional oversight.