Congressional Democrats have demanded answers from a federal agency about whether DOGE’s recent tech overhaul could put taxpayer data in danger.
The latest please-explain-this-DOGE-activity letter letter [PDF] landed yesterday on the desk of the Internal Revenue Service’s acting inspector general, Heather Hill. Gerry Connolly, the ranking member of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a DOGE gadflyis the one who sent it. Connolly
is now demanding answers regarding a 30-day “hackathon” that was reportedly launched by DOGE staffers embedded with the IRS in partnership last month. According to an anonymous source cited in an April Wired article the event involved DOGE staffers, Palantir employees, and IRS engineers, all working together to overhaul core tax systems.
A hackathon, for those who are not familiar, is a short, focused coding marathon – measured in weeks, not days – that is meant to prototype, not overhaul federal systems. Wired reported that the event “very unstructured,” was more of a strategy free-for all than a software engineering session. Participants brainstormed ways to rewire IRS’s backend using a single API layer. Connolly wrote.
A senior Treasury official, however, denied that there had been any hackathon. In a telephone conversation with the Registerthe official confirmed that there was no hackathon and that the process, which was a two-day IT kickoff, only involved career IRS staff who already had access to the agency’s data systems. It did not include members of the cost cutting unit President Trump asked Elon to oversee. The Treasury spokesperson confirmed that Palantir was playing a part, but that it was a limited role. The IRS is using Palantir software which has already been FedRAMP approved by the government to update its procurement systems. We’re told that IRS engineers are doing most of the work and Palantir engineers will be contracted to help with the remaining workload. Palantir’s spokesperson noted that the company has worked with IRS for many years, and even held contracts with the agency under the Biden administration.
Wired has been contacted for their opinion on the IRS’s denial. We will update this article when we hear back. Connolly didn’t focus his letter solely on the alleged hackathon. He, as well as the Wired article, also claimed that the effort involved building a “mega API” that would stitch together IRS databases to centralize taxpayer data and potentially “allow IRS systems to interact with unknown cloud services.”
He added that the “mega API” raised serious privacy concerns since it could have allowed anyone with access to “to export all IRS data to the systems of their choosing, including private entities.” Connolly stated that the IRS systems DOGE is aiming to link are intentionally compartmentalized in order to reduce security risks. The Treasury spokesperson did not deny that IRS is working on a single API layer. However, she insisted that this effort was essential to eliminate fragmentation within the agency. This will make it easier for taxpayers to work with the IRS. The spokesperson also told us that a unified API layer has been a project at the IRS for 20 years and has cost $4 billion, despite not being delivered on. Connolly’s email also claimed that DOGE’s cost cutting measures had cut ahref=””https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-doge-executive-claims-15-billion-savings-irs-technology-budget-2025-03-21/” “rel=””nofollow””> $ 1.5BN from the IRS budget, hampering efforts to replace legacy systems.
The IRS may have a good reason for cutting that funding. A Treasury official told us the IRS modernization efforts were 30 years behind schedule and 15B over budget. They are likely throwing anything that will stick to the wall in order to bring the tax agency up to date. GAO finds possible savings of billions for the government without Elon’s assistance
“DOGE has exfiltrated sensitive data to unvetted artificial intelligence companies, flouted federal data access controls, and exhibited abysmal security practices,” Connolly said. We also note, in addition to these examples, that DOGE agents have poor personal security hygiene and have made life difficult to the federal government’s auditing body. Connolly continued.
A minority Oversight Leader has demanded that the IRS IG explain to him what DOGE is doing with IRS software systems. He has asked for answers by May 29, less than two weeks away. (r)
