Why Elon Musk Is So Focused on the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Americas Checkbook
The first weeks of President Trump’s second term have been dominated by a blizzard of executive orders aimed at reversing diversity policies, trade wars with major American trading partners and intrigue over the most important federal office that most Americans have never heard of in the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.Tucked within the Treasury Department, the bureau is staffed by career civil servants who operate a system that channels about 90 percent of the payments for the United States government, which spent about $6.75 trillion last fiscal year.Sometimes referred to as the nation’s checkbook, the bureau has a trove of information about recipients of federal benefits, tax information and contracts associated with programs spanning the government.That’s why it has become a point of interest for Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has said its aim is to root out wasteful spending but which has also begun looking to stop expenditures that clash with Mr.Trump’s policy agenda.Mr.
Musk and his team got access last week to the payments system, giving them a window into every payment that the government makes.That includes personal data, such as Social Security numbers for those receiving federal benefits and bank account information.
Access to the system could ostensibly offer them the ability to stop payments from being made, giving the Trump administration more power to starve programs that it does not like.The revelation that Mr.Musk could interfere with the plumbing of the nation’s spending system created alarm inside and outside of the federal government.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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