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Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., defended Elon Musk-led cost-cutting efforts across the federal government and countered that Americans’ “personal financial information” is imperiled not by the Department of Government Efficiency but by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
CFPB employees expect mass layoffs under the Trump administration, which has given DOGE employees access to the bureau’s data, including sensitive information on law enforcement investigations, trade secrets, and corporate proprietary information.
Barr told Eleanor Mueller at Semafor’s Tackling Washington’s Tax and Spend Priorities event in Washington, DC on Thursday that “DOGE is not the risk to the privacy of” individuals in the US, adding that because the CFPB gets its funding from the Federal Reserve, it is immune from congressional oversight.
“The truth is that the individuals at DOGE undergo the same security checks and background checks,” Barr said. “These are professionals that actually know how to protect personally identifiable information.”
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Barr also argued that DOGE’s slashing of the federal workforce was necessary given America’s ballooning debt. He said the US’s $36 trillion debt and growing interest payments on federal debt had left the administration with little choice.
“People who say we shouldn’t have DOGE are not looking out for their children,” Barr said. “We cannot afford this any longer. We need government efficiency.”
DOGE officials have accessed government records on millions of federal employees, including addresses, demographics details, and salary information, The Washington Post reported, and have at times also sought to access classified information without a security clearance.