(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is requesting the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General review the Department of Government Efficiency’s alleged “infiltration” of the agency’s internal federal student loan database.
“The full extent of DOGE’s role and influence at ED remains unknown,” Warren wrote in a letter first obtained by ABC News.
“This lack of clarity is not only frustrating for borrowers but also dangerous for the future of an agency that handles an extensive student loan portfolio and a range of federal aid programs for higher education,” she added.
The internal federal student aid (FSA) systems handle the $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio for more than 40 million borrowers. It’s unclear whether DOGE has made any changes to student loan data.
“The Department is refusing to tell Americans who’s digging through their personal data and if their data is safe,” Warren wrote in a statement to ABC News. “I’m pushing for an independent investigation into what the Department of Education is hiding from us.”
The OIG office is the statutory, independent entity within the department responsible for identifying fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal activity involving department funds, programs, and operations, according to its website.
Warren and a group of Democratic senators, including Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., accuse the Department of Education of refusing to comply with her monthslong congressional investigation into what, if any, records have been accessed by DOGE employees that could be sensitive.
“[The Education Department] further refused to disclose any information about the scope of DOGE’s access to sensitive student borrower data, including whether or not DOGE was granted access to the National Student Loan Data System or any other database that holds sensitive federal student loan borrower data,” they wrote in the letter to Department of Education Acting Inspector General René L. Rocque.
Billionaire Elon Musk and the DOGE team gained access to several federal agencies earlier this year. The team was tasked to slash federal spending and help dismantle the education department.
At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the department’s fiscal year 2026 budget last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the DOGE employees working at the department had the same access any of the agency’s employees would be granted.
McMahon has also said that DOGE was conducting a “solid audit” of the agency and she appreciates their work to help identify waste, fraud and abuse.
The news comes ahead of Warren’s first ever meeting with McMahon. Warren sent McMahon dozens of questions ahead of the meeting as she hopes to discuss student loan repayment and forbearances, access to student aid and debt relief, among other topics.
However, in February, Warren opened an investigation into DOGE’s influence at the agency. The department’s responses to her investigation did not indicate how a DOGE employee who previously had “read-only access” to files had those privileges “revoked,” whether this employee has “retained access” to any other internal databases, and what actions the agency has done to ensure that sensitive information would not be “released or misused,” according to Warren’s letter to the inspector general.
In its responses, the department said it couldn’t answer the senator’s questions due to “ongoing litigations,” the letter added.
“These responses failed to diminish our concerns about borrowers’ privacy and whether the Department may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures in handling this data,” senators wrote in the letter.
ABC News reached out to the Education Department and the White House about DOGE’s access to borrower data but did not receive a reply before this story was published.
In April, Warren launched her “Save Our Schools” campaign in opposition to President Donald Trump’s and McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the department. The senator has previously investigated the firing of FSA employees and how a reduction in staff at the agency could have “dire consequences” for borrowers.
“ED should immediately restore all fired [Federal Student Aid] employees responsible for reviewing student aid complaints and refrain from taking any measures to deter the submission of complaints,” Warren and a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to McMahon in March.
Recently, congressional Democrats insisted McMahon cooperate with a separate inspector general review of the administration’s plan to shutter the smallest Cabinet-level agency. A group of lawmakers on the Education and Workforce, Oversight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees in the House and Senate sent the secretary a letter requesting she comply with the federal watchdog.
“The OIG must be allowed to do its job,” they wrote. “We urge the Department to immediately meet its obligation under the law to fully comply with the OIG’s review.
“Congress and the public need to understand the full extent and impact of the Administration’s actions on the Department and the students, families, and educational communities it may no longer be able to serve,” they added.
McMahon’s “final mission” as the 13th education secretary is to abolish the department, but the administration’s first steps to diminish the agency was denied in a federal appeals court loss last week.
The Department of Education has since filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
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