White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will restore “faith and confidence” in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Miller joined Fox News on Monday as concern spread that DOGE is seeking access to the IRS system known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS). He was asked if Americans’ confidential, sensitive information would now be in the hands of DOGE officials.
“I give you my word … the only thing that is happening here is restoring neutrality, ethics, accountability to the IRS to make sure at the payment level, at the systems level, that we can identify signs and warning symptoms that large-scale fraud is taking place, that unfair politicization is taking place, that unfair targeting is taking place,” Miller said.
He added that the actions are being done so “we have faith and confidence in the IRS and that no dollars are being stolen from the American people.”
Top Democrats in Congress are seeking answers to what DOGE plans to do at the IRS, requesting any agreements the agency signed with Musk’s team and what, if any, information has been handed over, including taxpayer information.
The IDRS is a system that the agency uses to receive access to taxpayer accounts. IRS employees can request tax returns, generate notices and enter data on a taxpayer’s file.
The concern comes as DOGE officials also gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, which controls $6 trillion in federal funds, including Social Security, federal grants and Americans’ tax records.
DOGE has also set up accounts on the social platform X, which Musk owns, for the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In defense of DOGE, Miller said Monday that the federal government doesn’t catch a “tiny fraction” of the fraud that takes place. Gaining access to the system will allow the Trump administration to target tax fraud and “protect the integrity of these systems that Americans rely on.”
“When we talk about DOGE, who are we talking about?” Miller said. “We are talking about staff that serves the president of the United States, that is appointed by the president, that reports to the White House.”
“That is part of the formal infrastructure of the federal government. That is the highest level of accountability that you can possibly have, as opposed to some career civil servant who has, up until now, been completely immune to any form of accountability,” he added.
