I apologize for the preliminary stuff!
For 17 years I was the regional IT manager for a federal agency here in Kansas City. When a federal employee is transferred (called Permanent Change of Station, or PCS) to another location the move is paid for the by the government, same as a corporation would pay to transfer an employee. Surprisingly, the rules for such transfers follow the same IRS regulations whether it is the federal government, state government, or a corporation.
Generally, most costs associated with such a transfer are considered non-taxable to the employee but others are partially taxable depending on circumstances, while others are fully taxable as income. The whole process is extremely complex. For example, the first house hunting travel for the employee to the new location to find housing is non-taxable but travel for the spouse and kids MAY be taxable, depending on circumstances. Subsequent house hunting trips are taxable. Cost for contracting a moving company and storage of household goods are non-taxable for 120 days. After 120 days storage may or may not be taxable, again depending on the situation. Shipping charges are based on estimated weight of the shipment. Up to the weight limit is non-taxable, but over the limit is taxable. There is a LOT more I could list but you get the idea that the PCS rules are complex
Our agency tracked that information on a nightmarishly complex set of spreadsheets, as did most (maybe all) other agencies. I was hired as a contract employee in 1989 to develop software to handle all that complexity! AARRRGGG!! In 1991 I was hired as the federal IT manager and continued in that position until I retired on April Fools Day, 2007. Y2K played havoc with databases all over the world and I had to rewrite the application in Visual Basic. (Don't try to tell me that Y2K was just a hohum, I lived it! I KNOW BETTER!)
OK, I told you all that background stuff so I could tell you this!
Senator Chuck Grassley (Senate Finance Committee) was investigating a complaint about errors and abuse by federal agencies in processing and paying PCS expenses. All federal agencies received a formal request for some pretty complex and detailed reports showing how PCS expense were being paid. Federal agencies throughout the government started screaming that it would take weeks or even months to extract the data. My finance officer in Kansas City asked me how long it would take to extract the information. I said, "Give me forty five minutes." I wrote some SQL queries (Structured Query Language) and made the report. I showed it to the PCS guy in the next cubicle. He said it looked good to him. I took the report to my finance officer. She looked it over and asked if it was possible to sort the data in a little different order. I revised my SQL query and handed her the revised report in about five minutes. She forwarded the report to our regional administrator and it was in Senator Grassley's hands in about four hours. I don't actually know if other agencies ever submitted a final report!
Ok, what's the point? Just this. We had a computer whizbang in Kansas City! (ME!) In the world of whizbangs I was just an apprentice. I know teenagers and 20 somethings that could program circles around me! I'm betting Musk has a cadre of whizbangs at his beck and call! Whizbangs that would run circles around me and I knew my SQL and my database!
I also GUARANTEE that the agencies already know how their databases are being used for fraud. Every agency has computer whizbangs on their staff. They know the weak spots in their records. That is why the federal bureaucrats are so scared. They are about to be exposed as white collar thieves and they know it!
My little database had a few thousand records. The Social Security database has hundreds of millions of records. I can't imagine what other huge agencies (USDA, DOD, Treasury, etc.) databases might look like. The potential for fraud is staggering!
Trump, Musk, and DOGE are on the hunt and the bureaucrats are worried!
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