糖心Vlog

Since President Trump established DOGE on January 20, 2025, news outlets have reported that DOGE has requested or gained access to numerous government systems containing highly sensitive data, including those of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). On February 7, 2025, the 糖心Vlogsubmitted FOIA requests to more than forty agencies, including the SSA and VA, to obtain information about what sensitive data DOGE has accessed and about DOGE鈥檚 use of artificial intelligence to analyze the data. Although a number of agencies granted the ACLU鈥檚 request for expedited processing of the FOIA requests, in light of the extraordinary public interest in information about possible abuse of Americans鈥� personal information, neither SSA nor VA has granted expedited processing.

Transparency about DOGE鈥檚 secretive efforts to access government data is particularly important here, given the nature of the information that the SSA and the VA control. The SSA holds vast quantities of sensitive personal and financial data. As one court put it in an order barring DOGE personnel from accessing SSA data systems, the data the agency holds includes 鈥淪ocial Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers鈥� license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses.鈥� Yet, as the Washington Post recently reported, DOGE personnel have gone to great lengths to try to circumvent that court order. The VA also maintains highly sensitive personal information, including veterans鈥檓edical records, benefits information, military service records, as well as information about every benefit-seeking veteran鈥檚 spouses, children, caregivers, and survivors.

The ACLU鈥檚 lawsuit asks the court to order the SSA and VA process the FOIA requests on an expedited basis, given the privacy risks at stake.