DOGE’s Access to Health, Financial Records Draws Union Challenge

Elon Musk‘s US government efficiency initiative is unlawfully gaining access to Americans’ health and financial data, according to an updated complaint by a coalition of unions and worker groups.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has or intends to access information systems at the Department of Health and Human Services and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without the necessary legal authority, the Feb. 11 complaint claims.

“DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data,” the complaint says.

The coalition bringing the lawsuit includes the AFL-CIO and American Federation of Teachers. They added the claims concerning HHS and the CFPB to their pending lawsuit against DOGE and the Department of Labor in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

President Donald Trump tapped Musk to run DOGE as a federal government cost-cutting effort.

The amended suit says DOGE’s access to HHS records exposes personal information of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, health care providers, and agency employees.

DOGE is also obtaining sensitive financial data from complaints that consumers submitted to the CFPB or records obtained during agency investigations, the complaint says.

The complaint alleges violations of the Privacy Act, which safeguards personal data, and the Administrative Procedure Act, which regulates the power of federal agencies.

The coalition is urging the federal court to issue an injunction that curtails DOGE’s access to the data.

Department of Justice attorneys representing DOGE and federal agencies in the suit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. They’ve argued the unions haven’t shown unlawful agency actions or that their members have been harmed by DOGE’s work.

The coalition faced an early setback in the suit Feb. 7. Judge John D. Bates, presiding over the case, denied the unions’ request for a temporary restraining order, finding the labor groups hadn’t shown they had legal standing to bring the suit.

In a separate suit seeking to rein in DOGE’s power, a federal judge earlier this month temporarily limited the group’s access to the Treasury Department’s payments system.

Lawyers from Democracy Forward Foundation represent the plaintiffs, along with in-house counsel for unions such as the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union.

The case is Am. Fed. of Labor and Cong. of Indus. Orgs. v. Dep’t of Lab., D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00339, amended complaint filed 2/11/25.