Federal Workers Contend With Elon Musk's Proposed Cuts and Buyouts

Government workers consider whether to take buyouts offered by Trump and Musk as their DOGE team moves through federal agencies. Bloomberg's Ted Mann breaks down reaction from agency officials and lawmakers.

When Elon Musk and his team of young deputies gained access to the Treasury Department computer network that the US government uses to pay its bills, and where private financial data of nearly every American is stored, it caused alarm across the country.

It also seemed to put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the middle of a delicate standoff between bureaucrats at the agency he is charged with leading and President Donald Trump’s loudest adviser.

With Trump’s blessing, Musk, the world’s richest man and chief executive of automaker Tesla Inc., has been leading a tornadic campaign to remake the federal bureaucracy that some critics have called illegal.

Bessent, a figure of the traditional finance world, is more on board with the Musk crew’s mission than has been widely understood.

As Bessent was building out his team in December, he interviewed Tom Krause, who is now a member of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to a person familiar with the matter. Krause is now digging into Treasury’s systems and data.

Among the topics they discussed during the interview was the very mission in which DOGE is now engaged, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

A group of roughly half a dozen GOP senators reached out privately to the White House to object to Musk’s accessing of Treasury systems, according to people familiar with the conversations. The senators indicated that the moves went beyond DOGE’s stated mission to save the government money.

Yet the secretary they voted to confirm was involved in planning the moves now underway, even recommending Krause for the special government employee status he now is using to plumb Treasury’s servers.

A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily limited access to the Treasury payment system after a group of unions accused the agency of illegally sharing members’ information with Musk’s team. The order continues to allow “read only” access to two Musk associates, including Krause, but bars Treasury from providing access to payment records more broadly while she considers the unions’ request for a temporary restraining order.

Treasury’s chief of staff pushed for Krause to receive access to the system so that he could freeze US Agency for International Development payments, the New York Times reported, citing emails containing the request. Much of the foreign aid agency’s work has been paused as many workers have been put on leave, recalled from overseas postings and locked out of critical systems.

Musk’s systematic provocation has put even some allies of the White House in uncomfortable positions. But the relationship with Bessent reflects how the symbiosis between Musk and Trump is holding – for now.

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