House Dem seeks inspector general investigation of HHS claims in DOGE lawsuits

A top House Democrat said he is concerned the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided incorrect or fraudulent information as part of ongoing lawsuits into the Department of Government Efficiency ’s (DOGE) infiltration of government information systems and wants the agency’s inspector general to investigate.

In a letter sent Friday and shared first with The Hill, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the ranking member on the House Education and Workforce Committee, asked the HHS Office of Inspector General to open an investigation “immediately” into the matter.

“I am deeply concerned about the possibility that the Department is providing false or inaccurate information in litigation,” Scott wrote.

His letter focused on the efforts of billionaire Elon Musk, who previously helmed DOGE , and the group’s employees — who were provided access to the federal government’s payment system in January 2025 — exposing sensitive personal data, such as social security numbers, taxpayer ID numbers, information on children, and home addresses, of tens of millions of Americans.

DOGE officials also gained access to payment and contracting systems across the HHS that control hundreds of billions of dollars in annual payments to healthcare providers.

That data access and protection of the agency sparked a flurry of litigation from labor unions and other privacy advocates.

Scott said his concern stems from the HHS’s refusal to cooperate with an independent probe from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). He noted the agency denied the GAO’s request for a standard observational walkthrough of the department’s IT systems.

After the GAO submitted a modified request for artifacts and screenshots as verification, the health department again declined to cooperate. Scott said the HHS’s noncooperation stemmed from concerns that information, materials, items, or other documentation provided to the accountability office may not match those provided in litigation.

Scott also sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May asking for a detailed explanation about why the agency wasn’t cooperating with the investigation and what it meant by “discrepancies” between what the HHS produced in litigation and what it would provide to the GAO.

The Virginia Democrat said the department has not responded to numerous requests to “refute the assertion that it has provided misinformation to one or more courts.”