Elon Musk will dispatch a DOGE team to Parkersburg, West Virginia, next week, where it will gain read-only access to the US government’s central accounting system, according to a source familiar with the effort.
The planned visit opens a new window into some of the government’s most sensitive financial data. It comes after a federal judge restricted Musk’s cost-cutting team’s access to Treasury’s payment systems earlier this week, in a lawsuit brought by unions and a retiree group concerned about privacy.
Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and now close adviser to President Donald Trump, has sought direct access to federal data systems as part of his new role as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
On X, the social media platform Musk owns, he’s taken credit for billions in canceled contracts and grants, though Treasury officials have insisted that he doesn’t have the authority to do that from its payment systems.
The DOGE team will be at the Bureau of Fiscal Service building in Parkersburg from Tuesday through Thursday, the person familiar with the visit said. That’s where Treasury keeps its Central Accounting Reporting System, or CARS, which handles accounting and reporting access for all federal agencies. CARS data is used to construct the nation’s balance sheet, but also processes bank information from agencies and the Federal Reserve Bank.
But it’s different from the disbursement systems that Musk’s DOGE teams have previously accessed. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a temporary restraining order Thursday saying only two DOGE employees — Tom Krause and Marko Elez — can access payments, and only on a read-only basis. Elez was fired that same day for a history of racist comments, but Musk and Vice President JD Vance say he should be hired back.
The secure Parkersburg facility also houses what used to be known as the Bureau of the Public Debt, which conducts a daily accounting of the $28.9 trillion national debt, and some back-office functions for other federal agencies. All employees are subject to background, credit and security checks — including fingerprinting — every three to five years.
Musk said Saturday that he’s reached an agreement with Treasury officials on a number of issues related to how federal payments are audited, documented and checked against an existing “do-not-pay” list of barred entities.
He called the actions “super obvious and necessary changes” that will be implemented by existing, career government employees.
It was unclear how much of what Musk requested was already being done. The Treasury Department did not immediately confirm the agreement Saturday.
The Parkersburg visit was first reported by Pro Publica.