Federal Paperwork Mine in DOGE’s Crosshairs Is Actual and Weird

• Elon Musk mentioned on Tuesday that the federal government shops key retirement paperwork in a transformed mine.
• The limestone mine is actual, and is within the Division of Authorities Effectivity’s crosshairs.
• The US authorities began storing data within the underground facility within the Sixties.

A transformed mine positioned in Pennsylvania and used to retailer and course of federal retirement paperwork is definitely actual, and is now beneath risk.

In a press convention within the Oval Workplace on Tuesday, Elon Musk mentioned that the US authorities shops and processes all retirement paperwork in a limestone mine.

“The elevator breaks down generally, and no one can retire,” Musk mentioned, including: “Would not that sound loopy?”

Musk’s feedback got here because the Trump White Home continues its strikes to radically alter the federal workforce.

Musk mentioned they have been making an attempt to “right-size” the federal paperwork and that getting folks to retire early on full advantages was a superb factor.

However he added: “We have been instructed probably the most variety of folks that might retire presumably in a month is 10,000 as a result of all of the retirement paperwork is written down on a bit of paper, then it goes down a mine.”

Musk mentioned that “as a substitute of working in a mineshaft, carrying manila envelopes to packing containers in a mine, you may do virtually anything, and you’d add to the products and companies of the USA in a extra helpful method.”

The Division of Authorities Effectivity’s X account later printed pictures of the power.

It mentioned greater than 700 workers work 230 ft underground to course of about 10,000 federal worker retirement functions a month, including that the method can take a number of months.

In keeping with a 2014 Washington Put up report, 600 OMP employees course of federal workers’ retirement papers by hand on the website, passing hundreds of case information from cavern to cavern.

The guide course of continues to function on account of successive administrations’ failures to automate it, the outlet reported, delaying how briskly employees can obtain their full retirement advantages.

In an interview final 12 months with Federal Information Community, OMP’s then-CEO mentioned the company was testing an internet platform for retirement functions, however he mentioned it might take “a few years” to implement.

The Workplace of Personnel Administration did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

A 2015 prospectus of the power by the Normal Companies Administration mentioned the mine, which has been occupied by the Workplace of Personnel Administration since 1970, is positioned in Boyers, Pennsylvania, and has about 580,000 rentable sq. ft.

The mine was initially owned by US Metal, which excavated the location from 1902 to 1952, earlier than the US authorities began storing data there in 1960, in keeping with the Heart for Land Use Interpretation.

Iron Mountain, a worldwide administration and storage service supplier, acquired the mine’s proprietor in 1998, it mentioned, and continues to lease house in its underground facility to the US authorities.

Iron Mountain did not reply to a request for remark.

In 2015, the GSA warned that components of the mine’s ceiling have been degrading. It proposed buying a brand new house to supply a “long-term resolution” for federal companies working within the mine. It’s unclear if something got here of that proposal.

The mine can also be used to retailer movies and paperwork for personal corporations and teams, together with the Corbis photographic assortment Invoice Gates bought to Visible China Group in 2016.