Senators demand details on DOGE’s data access following revelations of improperly shared SSA data
In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Sens. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked for a briefing on the recent court disclosure, writing that “we take very seriously the SSA’s stewardship of any personally identifiable information (PII) in its purview.”
The government filed the disclosure, dated Jan. 16 and signed by a Justice Department official, as part of an ongoing legal battle over DOGE access to SSA data.
Tucked inside were revelations that DOGE associates circumvented agency procedures for data sharing and used unauthorized third-party servers to share data last spring. SSA still doesn’t know exactly what data was shared and if it's still on the server.
The court filing also described how a DOGE employee signed an agreement in March 2025 to share SSA data with a political advocacy group that wants to “find evidence of voter fraud” and “overturn results in certain States,” the court documents say. That group isn’t named in the court filing.
SSA made two Hatch Act referrals to the Office of Special Counsel last December because of the incident, which didn’t go through the agency’s typical data exchange procedures. The agency only learned about the incident — and the use of a third-party server detailed in the “correction” to testimony from SSA officials — during an unrelated review this fall.
The court filing also says that, although SSA still maintains that DOGE never had access to agency systems of record, a DOGE associate emailed the former operational head of the efficiency team, Steve Davis, a file of SSA data. SSA doesn’t know exactly what was in the file because it is password-protected, although the agency believes it was the names and addresses of about 1,000 people.
The senators are asking SSA for a comprehensive briefing as well as written responses to a set of questions by Feb. 10.
Those include what the agency has done to ensure that its policies for sensitive data are followed going forward, as well as how SSA is going to determine what data has been shared outside the agency.
“The disclosure suggests that the SSA’s policies for granting access to PII were not consistently followed,” the lawmakers write.
Crapo and Wyden also ask that SSA share any additional discoveries about how DOGE accessed sensitive, personal data with the committee “in a timely manner.” The review of DOGE’s actions at SSA is ongoing, the court filing said.
An SSA spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW Tuesday that the agency “is committed to safeguarding the personal data of every American.”
“Our systems are continuously monitored by career professionals in accordance with federal and industry security standards,” they continued. “We will maintain engagement with Congress about our data protection efforts.”
The new details about how DOGE accessed and shared SSA data follow a whistleblower complaint filed by the agency’s former chief data officer Chuck Borges last summer.
Borges, who has since resigned and alleged that the agency retaliated against him for speaking up, said at the time that DOGE employees created a live copy of sensitive SSA data on a vulnerable cloud server.
Bisignano told Crapo that none of the data in question — the Numident database, a comprehensive file with sensitive information on each person issued a Social Security number — had been “accessed, leaked, hacked, or shared in any unauthorized fashion” after the Republican senator asked for more information last fall.
Borges’ attorney, Debra Katz, said in a statement issued after the latest court filings that “the federal government has conceded that many of Mr. Borges’ allegations are accurate.”
In addition to Wyden and Crapo’s oversight efforts, other Democrats in the House of Representatives are calling for a full investigation into how DOGE handled data at SSA.
Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and John Larson, D-Conn. — the top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Committee on Administration, the Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Social Security subcommittee, respectively — announced last week that they would be filing a “resolution of inquiry” to formally compel SSA to hand over more information.
The group is also asking for the courts to revisit decisions about DOGE access to data.
The Supreme Court overruled a block on DOGE access to data in June, although the case is ongoing back down in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court filing at the center of the latest oversight efforts also revealed some instances in which DOGE associates were given access to sensitive information even after the court had halted DOGE’s access to SSA data.
“These new findings raise serious concerns about whether the Social Security Administration has been fully honest with the court about how sensitive personal information was compromised,” Garcia said in a statement.
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