The new Department of Government Efficiency is seeking access to the government's payment systems, according to a Washington Post article based on unnamed sources.
Elon Musk, the DOGE chair, has been asking for access to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service systems since the fall elections, the Post says.
The bureau's systems handle about $6 trillion in payments for the federal government per year.
The systems send out Social Security retirement benefit checks, pay Medicare claims and provide tax refunds from the IRS.
Asset managers and life insurance and annuity issuers may interact with bureau systems when the bureau administers U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
The bureau runs the TreasuryDirect.gov debt securities purchasing website for the bureau's parent department, the U.S. Treasury Department. In 2023, for example, temporary problems on the TreasuryDirect site disrupted sales of new inflation-linked Series I Savings Bonds.
When the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program was helping to resolve problems at American International Group and other companies, the bureau administered the TARP effort.
Credit: Mike Scarcella/ALM
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