Musk references Butler County facility in press conference about shrinking federal workforce
Elon Musk brought more attention to Butler County Tuesday, Feb. 11, referencing a mine that stores federal employees’ retirement paperwork in an Oval Office press conference.
Without mentioning the name, Musk anecdotally referenced a facility in Boyers that operates out of a mineshaft and stores the retirement paperwork of all government employees. Musk said the mine opened in 1955.
“The limiting factor is the speed at which the mineshaft elevator can move determines how many people can retire from the federal government,” said Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. “And, the elevator breaks down sometimes, and then, nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?
“There’s like 1,000 people that work on this.”
Musk said only about 10,000 federal employees can retire per month due to their pensions being calculated by hand.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) posted photos on X of the mine after the press conference.The department aims to reduce the federal workforce and is looking to speed up the federal government retirement process.
Iron Mountain, a data storage and management company, purchased the land in 1998.
