Several states in the United States have filed a lawsuit to prevent Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DGE) from entering the U.S. payment system. This lawsuit aims to block Musk’s team from gaining access to the system. The payment system handles financial transactions worth trillions of dollars and the states involved fear that Musk’s team could create security risks by entering the system.

The coalition of 19 states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James has raised concerns that the DGE under Musk’s leadership does not have legal authority to access the U.S. Treasury Department’s systems. These systems contain sensitive personal information of millions of U.S. citizens. The states argue that allowing the DGE access could pose a significant cybersecurity risk. They further state that such an action could threaten the financial well-being of state programs and citizens private data.

The lawsuit argues that Musk’s department could disrupt the federal funding distribution process, potentially harming essential programs like healthcare early education climate initiatives, and others. The most alarming concern is that this access could be used for political purposes with the possibility that President Donald Trump might use it to further his own political agenda.

Trump had appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce government spending and cut down on bureaucracy. However this move has raised concerns among Democrats and other interest groups who believe Musk is overstepping his authority and attempting to dismantle key government agencies while laying off a significant number of federal employees.

Other lawsuits have been filed claiming that Musk’s team is violating privacy laws. On Thursday a federal judge ordered that only two special government employees be allowed to access the system and their access would be read-only.

Additionally other lawsuits have been filed to block the DGE from accessing the Department of Labor and Department of Education databases. However the judge rejected these claims.

The Trump administration has planned to downsize the federal government and reduce public spending as part of this strategy. As part of the plan millions of federal employees were offered incentives to voluntarily resign. However a federal judge temporarily halted this plan last Thursday.