Aides with tech mogul Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been granted access to EPA’s vast contracting system that details millions of dollars in agency spending.
Members of the DOGE team working with the agency headquarters staff have been granted “read-only access” to the EPA Acquisition System, according to an EPA email viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. That system, detailing millions of dollars in agency spending, could provide ample fodder for the Trump administration’s push to slash federal funding and government staffing.
DOGE aides are looking for contracts that may run up against President Donald Trump’s executive orders. The team may reach out to contracting officers to request that “contract actions” be “terminated,” according to the email.
Trump’s order to end the federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs already has had a wide impact at EPA. The agency has placed roughly 170 employees involved in its environmental justice work on administrative leave as a result of that order.
EPA has obligated almost $632.5 million in contracts in fiscal 2025 so far, according to a USAspending.gov profile of the agency. That is more than 5 percent of EPA’s total outlay in financial assistance.
EPA’s acquisition system holds personally identifiable information, an agency privacy impact assessment said. That includes EPA employees’ names and ID numbers as well as vendors’ tax ID numbers.
“The potential of a breach could exist,” said the assessment. If information was compromised, “it could have a low risk of harm to the individual’s professional aspects of life.”
EPA’s contracts could be affected by another Trump order that calls on agencies to stop spending under former President Joe Biden’s trademark climate and infrastructure law.
Two federal judges have ordered EPA to allow grantees access to funds, but EPA has given a series of justifications for its refusal. Funds are currently frozen pending an EPA review.
EPA press officials didn’t respond to questions for this story, including whether DOGE aides had been trained in handling personal information and if they had been given access to other agency systems.
Members of the DOGE team assigned to EPA are Kathryn Loving, Erica Jehling and Cole Killian, the email said.
Loving is listed in EPA’s staff directory as a “Federal Detailee.” Her mailing address is EPA’s headquarters in downtown Washington.
Jehling doesn’t pop up in the agency’s directory. A LinkedIn profile in her name indicates that she has worked at SpaceX, one of Musk’s companies, for more than eight years, including as its purchasing director.
E&E News reported last week Killian was in EPA’s directory. Killian has attended McGill University and was an engineer at high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading.
Jehling, Loving and Killian didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Concerns over DOGE’s access
EPA has been pressed to reveal what access Musk’s team has at the agency.
In a letter last week to Administrator Lee Zeldin, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group, called on him to publicly disclose what agency databases are open to DOGE. EPA holds sensitive personal and financial data, including confidential business information, or CBI, submitted by companies as required by law.
“It is a crime for EPA employees to disclose CBI information to people without proper clearance,” said PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse in the letter.
The EPA administrator has praised DOGE’s work at the agency.
“DOGE is making us better,” Zeldin said in a Fox News interview he posted on social media. “They come up with great recommendations, and we can make a decision to act on it.”
The level of access that Musk’s efficiency team has had to sensitive federal systems has been an ongoing problem for DOGE. Officials’ ability to read and potentially change information on federal employees, recipients of benefits and others has worried Democrats and former officials.
In one of the most high-profile cases, the Treasury Department acknowledged this week that one of Musk’s team members had “write” access to the system that makes the government’s payments, despite previously denying that anyone from DOGE had that access. Treasury said in a court filing that it “mistakenly” gave the team member access and is investigating what happened.
Meanwhile, Musk has been given more power by the president.
Trump signed an order on Tuesday that would set up a DOGE “workforce optimization initiative.” The plan is to have agencies do large-scale layoffs and restrict new hiring in coordination with Musk’s team.
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said in the Oval Office. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
Anxiety is high at EPA as DOGE reviews its operations.
Staffers placed on paid leave were asked to submit to the agency their personal contact information, driving concerns about their privacy, said EPA employees granted anonymity because they feared retaliation.
In addition, staff at the agency, worried about potential surveillance, have warned each other to not have personal conversations in front of their work computers and devices.
The mood there is described as dour, with employees seen crying in the hallways.
“There’s an unrelenting campaign to intimidate EPA employees,” said one agency staffer.
Contact reporter Kevin Bogardus on Signal at KevinBogardus.89
Reporters Timothy Cama and Jean Chemnick contributed.
