Sens. Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren have asked the Treasury Department to postpone its requirement that TreasuryDirect users sign in through ID.me until at least after the 2027 tax filing deadline, and pressed the IRS to explain why it still relies on the private identity verification service.
The requirement took effect Oct. 28 for TreasuryDirect, the only online platform for buying and redeeming U.S. savings bonds, after Treasury began moving customers to ID.me logins in September. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano, the senators called the transition deadline “needlessly rushed.” They said savings bonds are mostly held by older Americans who may lack the “digital proficiency” to make the switch, and noted that taxpayers retrieve tax documents through TreasuryDirect.
“Americans should not have to provide sensitive personal information to ID.me as the price of accessing essential government services when a secure government-operated alternative is available,” the senators wrote.
Wyden and Warren, the top Democrats on the Senate Finance and Banking committees, wrote that “the technical basis for continuing to require ID.me is unclear.” They pointed to Login.gov, the sign-in service run by the General Services Administration, which they said meets the federal IAL2 identity-proofing standard and offers multifactor authentication, fraud prevention, U.S. passport verification and in-person verification at participating Postal Service locations. The letter says Login.gov has more than 180 million users across 54 agencies and states. The Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to expand their use of Login.gov, and GSA is exploring a contract that would let Login.gov accept identity verification completed with commercial providers.
The letter also asks why the IRS never moved away from ID.me after saying in 2022 that it would. The agency now offers Login.gov alongside ID.me, and in January it awarded ID.me a sole-source identity and access management contract worth more than $1 billion. The senators posed 12 questions, including how much Treasury and the IRS have spent on ID.me and what services Login.gov lacks, and set a Nov. 9 deadline for answers.
An ID.me spokesperson said the company has outperformed Login.gov in customer service, ease of use, expanding access, protecting taxpayer data and fighting fraud. The company said it shares only the information TreasuryDirect needs, with the user’s consent, and does not share biometric data with the platform. Biometric data that ID.me collects “is never sold or shared, and is not matched against outside databases,” the spokesperson said.
A Treasury official called ID.me a government-trusted tool that protects users against unauthorized access and identity theft. The IRS said taxpayers “can use Login.gov or ID.me, giving them more choice, convenience, and security ahead of the 2027 filing season.”
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
