U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cleared up all the “misinformation” about the access the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “team” has reportedly had in the federal government.
Speaking with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, the new secretary set the record straight after he was asked about reports claiming the Treasury Department allowed members of DOGE to have access to the federal government’s payment system.
“Right now, there is widespread concern about the DOGE team’s access to sensitive payment systems. Are you worried at all that that access, that tinkering of the payment systems could affect the Treasury’s market or cause any disruptions?” Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin asked from the agency’s Cash Room.
Scott Bessent just laid every media rumor to rest over DOGE in the Treasury.
Come to find out two of the DOGE members are Treasury employees. pic.twitter.com/FikrzG2bgt
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) February 6, 2025
“There is a lot of misinformation out there,” Bessent replied. “When you say the DOGE team – these are Treasury employees, two Treasury employees, one of whom I personally interviewed in his final round.”
“There is no tinkering with the system. They are on read-only, they are looking and they can make no changes. It is an operational program to suggest improvements,” Bessent continued.
“We make 1.3 billion payments a year. This is two employees who are working with a group of long-standing employees,” he said, noting that “the ability to change the system is at the Federal Reserve. It doesn’t even lie in this building.”
“They could make suggestions on how to change the system but we don’t even run the system,” he explained as Mohsin continued to press about DOGE access to the government’s payment system. “It is an operational review. It is not an ideological review.”
“At Treasury, we move deliberately and we fix things. That’s the way we work. So everyone should know that all the payments are going to be made. They’re going to be in good order,” he said.
The Treasury secretary expressed his confidence in the DOGE team led by billionaire Elon Musk.
“These are highly trained professionals. This is not some roving band running around doing things. This is methodical and it is going to yield big savings,” he said.
He also emphasized that he is “completely aligned” with Musk.
“There are gigantic cost savings for the American people here,” the Treasury chief noted. “This is methodical and it is going to yield big savings.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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