Key Takeaways
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor, didn’t commit one way or the other when asked whether Elon Musk would be allowed to see sensitive Department of Labor data.
- The DOL produces important economic statistics and keeps the data confidential until it is publicly released.
- The department also has files on investigations into alleged safety violations at Musk’s rocket and auto companies.
The debate about whether Elon Musk has too much power over the operations of the U.S. government expanded into new territory on Wednesday.
During a Senate confirmation hearing, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Labor Department, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was asked whether Musk would be allowed to get a sneak peek at critical economic data that is kept confidential until its public release and often moves financial markets.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, asked Chavez-DeRemer whether she would allow Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency team he heads to see sensitive files. Last week, Musk’s DOGE employees were reportedly given access to DOL data, though it was unclear what, if any, records they had obtained.
This could be especially important given the department’s role in regulating companies Musk runs, including SpaceX and Tesla, Murray said. She also raised concerns about the possibility that monthly jobs data and other economic indicators could be manipulated, and that insider trading could occur.
“Elon Musk is now in a position to use his unelected role to use confidential government data to advance his own corporate interests while suppressing his competitors. Do you believe it is appropriate for someone with such blatant conflicts of interest to have access to that confidential economic and personal information?”
Chavez-DeRemer didn’t commit one way or another.
“Because I have not been confirmed, I only see the reports that everybody else has seen,” she said. “If confirmed, I will support the Department of Labor.”
DOGE Digs Into Data
The exchange came amid clashes between Musk’s DOGE team and federal employees over access to sensitive data at several federal agencies.
Trump has tasked the unofficial government agency with identifying cost savings at federal agencies. Last week, at least one senior official at the Treasury Department and the acting head of the Social Security Administration resigned after DOGE employees asked to access databases that held personal information about American citizens and government payments.
Murray is not the first to raise concerns about the Department of Labor and its key role as a source of information about the economy under the Trump administration. Before Trump took office, at least one former DOL official warned that Trump’s plans to reshape the workforce at the DOL and other statistical agencies by ousting career civil servants could undermine public trust in official economic data or that the data could be manipulated for political advantage.
The department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics uses nationwide surveys of employers and households to generate widely used economic metrics, including the unemployment rate and the Consumer Price Index inflation measure.