Trump nominee for SBA IG doesn’t rule out security probe of DOGE
The reported accessing of a federal payroll system by unvetted DOGE associates could get a look from the Trump administration’s inspector general nominee at the Small Business Administration.
During a Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee hearing Wednesday, ranking member Ed Markey of Massachusetts asked William Kirk about a Wired story from July that detailed through public records how Edward “Big Balls” Coristine and Donald Park were quickly granted “potentially wide-ranging access” to SBA IT systems in February.
Through that access, according to Wired, DOGE was able to tap into the National Finance Center, a shared service operated by the Agriculture Department that provides HR and payroll functions to the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and other agencies, including the SBA.
Within five hours of a request from the SBA’s Office of the Chief of Information, Coristine and Park were provided with “unlimited access” to agency systems and the NFC, according to Wired. That accelerated process, the publication noted, would not have allowed for proper vetting and security procedures.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Markey asked Kirk — currently acting chief of staff in the Education Department’s Office of General Counsel — if the SBA inspector general should “investigate DOGE’s activities if there is reasonable evidence that the privacy of those financial documents of millions of small businesses has been compromised.”
Kirk, who served three years in the Environmental Protection Agency’s OIG during the Biden administration, appeared open to the possibility of probing the incident, pending additional information.
“The privacy and security of information that our small businesses share with the SBA for the purposes of eligibility for the programs is critically important information, and it is imperative that all folks, all of the department officials that may have access to it, are trained and properly handle that information,” Kirk said.
“Any allegations or violations of those standards would be matters that the inspector general’s office would appropriately look at,” he continued. “And with the appropriate facts that come to my attention, I will work with my staff to ensure that facts are applied against the criteria involved, and make determinations.”
In an emailed statement to FedScoop on Thursday, Markey said that if Kirk is confirmed, he hopes he “would take these allegations seriously and waste no time launching a thorough and independent investigation. The American public and the entrepreneurs who rely on SBA’s services deserve transparency and public accountability from SBA.”
Markey previously railed against DOGE’s reported access to these IT systems in an August letter to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. The Massachusetts Democrat asked the former Republican senator from Georgia to answer five questions about DOGE’s access and agency protocols for data privacy and security.
“Let me be clear: DOGE is not a legitimate government agency,” Markey wrote at the time. “Under no circumstances should any DOGE staffers have access to small business owners’ PII. As SBA Administrator, you are accountable to Congress and to the American people. Concealing what DOGE did at SBA is dangerous, unpatriotic, and an abdication of your responsibility.”
