A new, unofficial DOGE API Download Tool has appeared online, which allows to fetch data from the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) official API as CSV files, simplifying interaction with government data in Excel an other spreadsheet software.
The tool enables users to fetch data from Grants, Contracts, and Leases endpoints of the DOGE API, downloading this data in CSV format, providing real-time progress tracking for multi-page downloads, and offering user-friendly error handling.
DOGE’s Public Data Interface Takes Shape
Doge offers a public API documented at https://api.doge.gov/docs, intended to let users “build your own analysis of Government spending and savings data.” The Download Tool facilitates access to information compiled by DOGE, sourced from repositories like fpds.gov.
DOGE currently claims substantial estimated savings ($160 billion total, $993.79 per taxpayer) and promotes a planned “Wall of Receipts” to catalogue terminated contracts (~$30B), grants (~$33B), and leases (~$311M) amounting to billions in potential savings.
The public availability of government data through the DOGE API presents a complex equation of benefits and risks. On one hand, offering direct, downloadable access to datasets detailing contracts, grants, and leases promotes transparency, empowering citizens, journalists, and researchers domestically to scrutinize government spending and efficiency claims.
This openness is fundamental for accountability. However, this very accessibility creates potential vulnerabilities. The ease of bulk data download could allow external governments or foreign entities to gather economic intelligence, analyze spending patterns to identify strategic priorities or dependencies, or potentially misuse aggregated, seemingly innocuous data points to map out sensitive operational details.
Furthermore, the potential for misinterpretation or manipulation for disinformation campaigns, both domestic and foreign, looms large if the data is incomplete, inaccurate, or lacks sufficient context.
Broader Ambitions and Data Controversies
The development of this public-facing tool occurs alongside reports of more ambitious, and contentious, data integration projects attributed to DOGE. A recent collaboration involving DOGE, IRS engineers, and the data analytics company Palantir held a hackathon aimed at building a potential “mega API” for IRS systems.
Sources suggested the intent was for Palantir’s Foundry software – a platform known for integrating vast datasets – to act as a central read hub for IRS information. Palantir has a significant history with government data projects, including work on the Pentagon’s Project Maven and partnerships involving Microsoft and Anduril Industries. The Treasury Department, however, characterized the IRS event merely as an “IRS Roadmapping Kickoff”.
CNN Politics alleged in a story on Friday that DOGE was concurrently constructing a master database specifically for immigration enforcement. This separate project reportedly aimed to consolidate sensitive data from the IRS, Social Security Administration (SSA), and Health and Human Services (HHS) to generate “targeting lists” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations, again with Palantir potentially involved.
A former senior IRS employee quoted by CNN expressed alarm: “If they are designing a deportation machine, they will be able to do that.” Reports also surfaced regarding alleged links between Elon Musk, DOGE, and Silicon Valley, including the potential placement of former Palantir staff in key government IT roles.
Efficiency Claims vs. Privacy Concerns
These wider reported activities have sparked significant debate and legal action over privacy and data security. Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, citing whistleblowers, accused DOGE of “recklessly and haphazardly combining data” and attempting to bypass security controls.
Federal judges have, in some instances, restricted DOGE’s access to data, such as SSA records requested in mid-March 2025 (justified internally as “absolutely critical to get detailed immigration status”), with one judge writing, “The Privacy Act is not toothless. Defendants cannot flout the law.” Regarding an IRS-ICE data-sharing deal signed April 7, 2025, a Treasury spokesperson stated, “The implication that taxpayer information is being inappropriately shared… is not only incorrect but dangerous.”
Official Defenses and Wider Context
DOGE proponents, including figures identified as Treasury adviser Sam Corcos and Secretary Scott Bessent, frame the department’s actions as necessary for modernizing government systems. Discussing IRS efforts in a recent Fox News interview, Corcos mentioned budget cuts to inefficient projects: “We’ve so far stopped work and cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget. Mostly projects that were going to continue to put us down the death spiral of complexity in our code base.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in the same reporting, stated that “Sam and his crew are making it more efficient to work for the American people. So, what’s wrong with it working better, cheaper, faster and with more privacy?”
President Trump, in a Time Magazine interview published on Friday, framed DOGE’s data consolidation as for finding waste and fraud, denying knowledge of its use for deportations (“not that I know of, no”). An executive order from March also directed agencies to remove barriers to data sharing.
