Elon Musk made headlines for calling attention to an unusual federal operation—an underground limestone mine where the government processes retirement applications entirely by hand.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) processes federal retirement applications entirely on paper. These records are stored and handled in an underground limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania.
Musk called the system a “time warp” while defending government workforce cuts at the White House.
The facility, located 230 feet underground in Pennsylvania has been used by the government for storage and record-keeping since the 1960s. The OPM Retirement Operations Center, which has operated there since the 1970s, processes more than 10,000 retirement applications every month—all by hand.
This isn’t the first time the system has drawn scrutiny. A 2014 investigation by The Washington Post described the mine as a ‘sinkhole of bureaucracy.’
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.
FOX News correspondent Nate Foy spoke with LiveNOW’s Andy Mac from Boyers, PA.
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