PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Amid efforts by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to slash the federal workforce and spending, an Oregon senator is leading an effort questioning the group’s latest move: seeking access to Internal Revenue Service data.

On Monday, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, demanding copies of any memos granting Musk-affiliated personnel access to IRS systems.

In their letter, the senators warned that personnel affiliated with Musk who gained access to IRS systems with private tax records could have violated strict taxpayer privacy and data protection laws that ban improper disclosure of Americans’ tax returns.

In addition to the data privacy concerns, the senators are also hoping to learn whether DOGE employees accessed or interfered with any work under the IRS Criminal Investigation Division or if personnel moved any IRS data, such as tax return information, from IRS systems to external servers or to personnel within the executive branch.

“According to public reports, the White House is pressuring the IRS to agree to a memorandum of understanding which would give software engineers working for Elon Musk at DOGE broad access to IRS systems, property and datasets which include the private tax return information of hundreds of millions of American citizens and businesses. It appears the MOU proposes giving DOGE team members access to the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System, raising serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda,” the senators wrote.

“Even if individuals affiliated with DOGE are employed by Treasury, their access to tax information may not be legal. For inspection of taxpayer information to be lawful, it must be made to or by an authorized person for an authorized purpose,” the senators continued. “To date, no information on DOGE employees or any others executing orders on Musk’s behalf have revealed any clear, stated purpose as to why they need access to return information, whether they have followed all required laws to gain access to IRS systems, and what steps the IRS has taken to ensure that inspection of tax returns and other taxpayer information is contained to authorized personnel and not disclosed to any unauthorized parties.”

The lawmakers added that executive orders requiring agency leaders to provide DOGE personnel access to IRS records do not supersede the federal tax code.

“Software engineers working for Musk seeking to gain access to tax return information have no right to hoover up taxpayer data and send that data back to any other part of the federal government and may be breaking the law if they are doing so. DOGE engineers also have no legal right to snoop around and inspect the tax returns of millions of American citizens unless expressly permitted under Section 6103,” the senators said.

Wyden and Warren also expressed concerns that DOGE personnel are “meddling with IRS systems” amid tax filing season, warning this could lead to system breakdowns that could delay tax returns “indefinitely.”

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, White House spokesman Harrison Fields defended DOGE, stating, “waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”

“DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on,” Fields continued.

This comes as the IRS plans to lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, as reported by AP, noting cuts at the agency could happen as soon as this week.