Welcome to The Logoff. Today, I’m focusing on a fight over control of the Treasury Department’s payment system, a legal battle with big implications for our democracy. At stake is Congress’s ability to keep control over government spending, a critical (and constitutional) check on Donald Trump’s power.

What’s the latest? A federal judge on Thursday signed off on an agreement limiting the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gets to the Treasury Department’s payment system. For now, only two DOGE employees will be able to view the system’s inner workings, but they won’t be able to make changes or cancel payments.

Back up. What’s the context here? For weeks, DOGE employees have been pushing to access the system — which handles trillions of dollars of federal spending — and sparring with career (non-political) Treasury employees who oversee it. Government........

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