Top Officials Placed on Leave After Denying DOGE Access to Federal Payroll Systems
MAR 31, 2025 4:58 PM
DOGE demanded full access to a US Department of the Interior system that handles even the Supreme Court's paychecks. When top staff asked questions, they were put on leave.
Top career officials at the Department of the Interior (DOI) were placed on administrative leave late last week after declining to immediately give affiliates of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) levels of access to a payroll system that would in theory allow them to, among other things, stop individual Supreme Court justices’ paychecks.
The New York Times has reported that these officials include DOI’s chief information and information security officers; sources tell WIRED they also include a top lawyer.
For several weeks, say sources with direct knowledge of the situation, DOGE operatives have been seeking what they termed “full” or “system” access to DOI’s payroll, human resources, and credentialing systems. Among the systems to which it demanded full access is the Federal Personnel and Payroll System (FPPS), which is housed in DOI’s Interior Business Center and used by dozens of federal agencies ranging from the Department of Justice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to handle payroll and records associated with more than 275,000 federal workers, including at agencies outside the executive branch.
The DOGE associates in question are Tyler Hassen, an energy executive and acting assistant secretary of policy, management, and budget at DOI; Stephanie Holmes, who runs HR for DOGE and is the acting chief human capital officer at DOI; and Katrine Trampe, an adviser to Doug Burgum, the secretary of the Interior.
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https://www.wired.com/story/doge-access-federal-payroll-systems-officials-leave-interior/
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