Democrats Unveil DOGE BROS Act To Punish People For Meddling In Private Data
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats unveiled a new bill Tuesday aimed at raising the stakes for punishment of Elon Musk and his team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency for improperly accessing millions of Americans' personal data held by the federal government.
The bill — named the Defending Our Government's Electronic data: Bolstering Responsible Oversight & Safeguards Act, or the DOGE BROS Act — would drastically increase penalties for accessing sensitive government data without authorization.
Led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the legislation is a direct response to DOGE's monthslong efforts to gain nearly unlimited access to all kinds of government information, including student loan borrowers' sensitive data, people's Social Security data, heavily guarded IRS data and immigration-related data held by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The bill specifically increases the caps on five penalties for violating federal privacy laws: from $250,000 to $750,000 for accessing information from any federal agency via a computer; from $5,000 to $30,000 for accessing personally identifiable data contained within any agency record; from $10,000 to $25,000 for accessing Social Security or Medicare data; from $5,000 to $25,000 for accessing tax return data; and from $5,000 to $25,000 for accessing census data.
'As unvetted and unqualified DOGE employees continue to recklessly access the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans, it's important that we take steps to better protect this data,' Warner, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 'For too long, our privacy laws have sat outdated, barely serving as a deterrent for improper handling or potential release of information.'
'This legislation would enforce that privacy must be a priority when handling the data of the American public,' said Warner, who is also a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Co-sponsors on the bill include Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.), Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.) and Peter Welch (Vt.).
Here's a copy of the DOGE BROS Act:
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Barring something extraordinary happening, the bill is not likely to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate.
But it's possible Democrats could try to attach it to other must-pass legislation and force an up-or-down vote on it, which could make at least some GOP senators squirm in having to effectively defend Musk and DOGE, both of which are unpopular.
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