Senator Seeks to Block DOGE Access to Commerce Trade Secrets, Export Licenses
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Commerce Department this week to decline to give the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential business data, including information disclosed in export license applications filed with the Bureau of Industry and Security.
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In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Warren said she's concerned DOGE could obtain trade secrets of companies that compete with Musk's own business ventures, including SpaceX, Tesla and xAI. Such access would not only give Musk an unfair advantage but could lead companies to stop submitting data that Commerce uses to make policy, including export controls, she wrote. She also worries that DOGE could place the information it obtains in an unsecured database, which China could then hack.
DOGE has been collecting sensitive data “across the federal government, with little regard for the law or Americans’ privacy," Warren wrote. "This reported conduct across agencies has already undermined public trust, and -- if it is allowed to expand further at the Commerce Department -- will threaten national security and the department's ability to fulfill its mission."
Warren asked Commerce to provide a written response to her letter by March 3 and a briefing by March 11. The letter was copied to White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. Commerce and the White House didn't immediately respond to our requests for comment.
The letter was sent after Trump administration officials began holding and scrutinizing BIS export licenses as part of a broader export control policy review (see 2502190018).