Trump’s Press Secretary talks about Elon Musk, DOGE & Putin
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt supplied an replace in the course of the White Home Press briefing on Wednesday. Leavitt spoke about Elon Musk’s function and President Trump’s name to Russia’s President Putin.
LOS ANGELES – Elon Musk made headlines Tuesday for calling consideration to an uncommon federal operation—an underground limestone mine the place the federal government processes retirement purposes solely by hand.
Talking from the Oval Workplace, Musk referenced the Workplace of Personnel Administration’s (OPM) Retirement Operations Heart in Boyers, Pennsylvania, the place federal workers type, file, and course of retirement claims manually, utilizing paper information saved in manila envelopes and cardboard containers.
“All of the retirement paperwork is handbook, on paper,” Musk mentioned. “It is like a time warp… Doesn’t that sound loopy?”
Musk’s feedback got here as President Donald Trump signed an government order directing businesses to chop again on authorities hiring and modernize outdated operations.
A decades-old system with little progress
The backstory:
The Boyers facility, situated 230 toes underground, has been utilized by the federal government for storage and record-keeping because the Sixties. The OPM Retirement Operations Heart, which has operated there because the Nineteen Seventies, processes greater than 10,000 retirement purposes each month—all by hand.
This isn’t the primary time the system has drawn scrutiny. A 2014 investigation by The Washington Submit described the mine as a ‘sinkhole of bureaucracy’, revealing that retirement purposes had been nonetheless being processed the identical method they’d been for many years, regardless of a number of modernization makes an attempt.
The article highlighted that paper recordsdata are bodily transported to the mine each day in vehicles, the place staff manually assessment, calculate, and approve advantages earlier than sending paperwork again to Washington. The report additionally detailed failed authorities efforts to digitize the method, with at the very least $100 million spent on automation makes an attempt that by no means succeeded.
Within the ten years since that report, little has modified. As of 2025, purposes are nonetheless processed on paper, and OPM continues to face processing backlogs, staffing shortages, and outdated workflows.
How the system works
Dig deeper:
Regardless of its inefficiencies, the Boyers facility stays a crucial hub for federal retirement purposes. The method follows a number of steps:
Federal workers submit retirement purposes on paper, that are mailed or hand-delivered to the OPM.Paper recordsdata are transported to the underground mine, the place workers manually assessment them for completeness.Employees members go recordsdata by hand from cavern to cavern, checking calculations and verifying advantages.Errors and lacking data decelerate processing, typically requiring paperwork to be despatched again to businesses for corrections.Permitted claims are manually entered into the system earlier than ultimate advantages are processed.
A 2019 GAO report discovered that OPM failed to satisfy its purpose of processing most retirement purposes inside 60 days between 2014 and 2017, citing three key causes:
Continued reliance on paper-based purposes and handbook processing.Inadequate staffing, significantly throughout peak seasons.Frequent errors in purposes that required further verification.
Failed efforts to modernize the system
Large image view:
For the reason that Eighties, a number of administrations have tried to automate OPM’s retirement processing, however none have succeeded.
In line with the GAO, the federal government has spent over $100 million because the late Eighties on failed modernization tasks. A 2023 Inspector Basic report discovered that whereas OPM had taken small steps towards digitization—corresponding to testing an internet retirement software pilot in 2024—a full modernization plan stays years away.
The Boyers mine, initially used for limestone excavation, was by no means meant to function a long-term authorities workplace, but it continues to deal with a whole lot of staff processing purposes by hand.
Why Musk and Trump are calling for change
What’s subsequent:
Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) has been tasked with figuring out wasteful authorities practices. He singled out the Boyers facility for instance of outdated inefficiency, arguing that automation may cut back backlogs and unlock authorities staff for different roles.
Elon Musk speaks within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2025. (Picture by JIM WATSON/AFP through Getty Pictures)
“The elevator breaks down generally, and no person can retire,” Musk joked. “As a substitute of working in a mine shaft, carrying manila envelopes, you are able to do virtually anything and add extra worth to the economic system.”
A key a part of Trump’s new government order requires businesses to cut back their workforce and enhance operational effectivity. That features a directive that businesses rent just one new worker for each 4 who go away—a transfer Musk and others declare will drive a reassessment of outdated processes.
The Supply: This text is predicated on reporting from The Washington Submit (2014), the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO), The Related Press, and former FOX reporting.
