Elon Musk’s DOGE employees have 24/7 access to NASA facilities and information systems, including employee personal data throughout the United States. About this informs Bloomberg.
With a corresponding letter to acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro was addressed by three Democrats in the US House of Representatives.
“We have learned that all three members of the DOGE (Department of Government Effectiveness) team have unrestricted 24/7 physical access to NASA facilities, including the NASA Administrator’s office on the 9th floor of NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.”,” wrote Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren, Valerie Foushy and Emilia Sykes.
It is noted that DOGE employees have full access to systems that contain confidential information about personnel and succession plans. The letter mentions the names of three representatives of the department — Alexander Simonpour, Scott Coulter and Riley Sennott. The authors of the appeal express doubts about their competence and draw attention to possible conflicts of interest within NASA.
Sennott and Simonpour previously worked at Elon Musk’s Tesla. Legislators drew special attention to Scott Coulter, who was described as a former hedge fund manager with “an intern-like level of confidence.” He was granted a one-year exemption from mandatory NASA cybersecurity training, according to Democrats. This, in turn, allows him “full access to NASA data and information systems without any education or training in security protocols.”
“The agency allowed unvetted and untrained individuals to gain unprecedented access, apparently in defiance of standard agency protocols and common sense. If the agency did vet these DOGE-affiliated individuals for questionable professional histories or apparent conflicts of interest, we nothing is known”, says the letter of the legislators.
Previously, the Democrats had already sent two letters to Janet Petro regarding DOGE’s role in NASA, but did not receive any answers about the vetting of DOGE employees or their level of access to classified information.
The document also highlighted that NASA ignored concerns about DOGE officials accessing data about SpaceX’s competitors, which is “one of the most egregious risks of a conflict of interest,” the lawmakers wrote.
