Elon Musk describes limestone mine used for processing federal workers’ retirement papers: ‘Like a time warp’

Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was looking into a limestone mine in Pennsylvania, where the cost-cutting organization says federal employee retirements are processed manually using a system that could take months. 

Musk told reporters about the mine on Tuesday during an appearance with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, as the president prepared to sign an executive order concerning the billionaire’s work leading DOGE.

“And then we’re told this is actually, I think, a great anecdote, because we’re told the most number of people that could retire possibly in a month is 10,000,” Musk said.

“We’re like, well, what? Why is that? Well, because all the retirement paperwork is manual on paper,” he continued. “It’s manually calculated and written down on a piece of paper. Then it goes down to mine and like, what do you mean, a mine?”

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DOGE wrote on X that an old limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, is where about 700 workers operate more than 230 feet underground to process about 10,000 federal retirement applications per month.

The applications are processed by hand using paper, and are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes, DOGE said.

The Washington Post described the facility as a “sinkhole of bureaucracy” in a 2014 article. At the time, the report said the total spending on the retirement system was $55.8 million. 

Multiple attempts to digitize the system have been made since 1987, according to the report. Each attempt largely failed and was eventually scrapped, with reported costs totaling over $130 million.

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Musk said the facility was started in 1955 and looks “like a time warp.” He noted the slow processing speed, which DOGE says can take multiple months.

“And then the speed, the limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move, determines how many people can retire from the federal government,” Musk said. “And the elevator breaks down and sometimes, and then you can’t, nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?”

Musk said the flawed system of “carrying manila envelopes to, you know, boxes in a mine shaft” could be remedied with “practically anything else.”

“That’s an example, like at a high level, if you say like, how do we increase prosperity is we get people to shift from roles that are low to negative productivity to high productivity roles,” he said.

In recent weeks, Democrats have largely criticized the work of Musk and DOGE to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending and trim the more than 2 million-person federal workforce.

Musk has pushed back, telling reporters Tuesday that “the people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get.”