Are US Retirement Papers Kept in Limestone Mine? What We Know

A vast underground mine is being used to store documents relating to federal workers—and Elon Musk has raised questions over its efficiency.

Why It Matters

Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been tasked with streamlining and reducing the cost of the federal government. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order implementing the DOGE “workforce optimization initiative”; this, according to Trump, will encourage agencies to limit hiring and reduce the size of the federal government. Speaking alongside the president this week, Musk has used the facility as an example of government inefficiency.

What To Know

During the signing of the executive order on Tuesday, February 11, while talking about reducing the size of the federal government workforce, Musk referenced “a limestone mine” where “we store all the retirement paperwork” for government workers.

The facility does indeed exist. Located near Boyers, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh, it is run by the Office of Personnel Management and processes the retirement paperwork for the entire federal workforce, and has done since the mid-20th century. Newsweek has contacted the Office of Personnel Management for clarification and comment via email outside of regular working hours.

During the press conference and online, Musk spoke of the inefficiency of federal retirements being processed on paper.

“Well, because all that retirement paperwork is manual on paper. It’s manually calculated,” Musk said from the Oval Office. “They’re written down on a piece of paper. Then it goes down a mine and, like, what do you mean a mine? Like, yeah, there’s a limestone mine. We store all the retirement paperwork. And you look at a picture, we will post some pictures afterward.”

Musk kept to his word. Images were then posted on X, formerly Twitter, of the entrance of the mine.

“Federal employee retirements are processed using paper, by hand, in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania,” the DOGE X account posted on Tuesday. “700+ mine workers operate 230 feet underground to process ~10,000 applications per month, which are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes. The retirement process takes multiple months.”

Responding to the post, Musk wrote: “Maybe it’s just me, but I think there is room for improvement here.”

What People Are Saying

Journalist David Fahrenthold said in a report on the facility in The Washington Post in 2014: “This is one of the weirdest workplaces in the U.S. government—both for where it is and for what it does.”

X users also expressed their surprise at the facility’s existence.

One user, Aimee Punessen, wrote on X: “This is like a scene out of [the film] Lost Raiders of the Ark. When the ark is taken away from Harrison Ford and wheeled down into a huge storage facility to be lost and forgotten forever.”

Another, posting under the name Ann Loves America, posted on X: “Today when you said this on live TV at first I thought you were kidding. Then I realized you were dead serious and it caused me brain hurt.”

What Happens Next

Following the executive order, agencies are set to start submitting their workforce reduction plans. What exactly will happen to the facility in Pennsylvania remains to be seen.