[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H632-H638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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ADDRESSING THE HACK OF U.S. TREASURY PAYMENT SYSTEMS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Baumgartner). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Casten) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, Haley Stevens and I introduced the Taxpayer
Data Protection Act last week. This is a very simple but, tragically,
an urgently necessary bill to address the hack of the U.S. Treasury
payment system by Elon Musk and his band of IT goons last week.
This bill would limit the Secretary of the Treasury's ability to give
access to the payment system only to people who: A, have a top secret
security clearance; B, have no conflicts of interest; C, are not
special government employees; and, D, have been Federal employees for
at least a year.
Why is this necessary?
What happened last week comprised one of the most significant
breaches of privacy and threats to our national security, perhaps ever.
I am not exaggerating.
This was done with the consent of Treasury Secretary Bessent. This
point is important because some of my colleagues across the aisle have
suggested that somehow what they are doing is just normal diligence.
This is decidedly abnormal. It is so abnormal, in fact, that, when
David Lebryk, the Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and former
Acting Secretary of the Treasury, refused to grant access to Elon Musk,
Secretary Bessent fired Mr. Lebryk so that Musk could force his way in.
Let's understand the scope of what happened. The Treasury Department
manages a $5 trillion-a-year Federal payment system. This is the way
that every branch of government pays their bills. Like any accounting
system, it is critical that all of the bills it pays are approved,
legal, and accurately recorded in our ledger.
This is how we make payments on savings bonds and other debt borrowed
by the United States. It is how we pay employees. It is how we pay
contractors. It is how we provide foreign aid. It is how we pay tax
refunds, veterans' benefits, and Social Security reimbursements. It is
how we distribute money to our intelligence agents and to intelligence
assets who are embedded in hostile foreign governments. Take control of
this system, and one can, quite literally, destroy the United States.
To put it mildly, it is a target for our adversaries.
Yet, last week, unvetted, unelected, and unconfirmed individuals
hacked into that system using insecure software and hardware.
Did they tamper with the code?
Did they manipulate payment systems to prioritize payments to
companies controlled by Mr. Musk?
Did they inadvertently use hardware that had been infiltrated by our
allies?
Did they take classified information with them on the way out that
could make them a security liability?
As we sit here right now, we don't know the answers to any of those
questions. All we have is denials from the hackers.
Mr. Speaker, on what basis should we trust them?
After all, they forced their way into the system with the full
consent of someone who lied to his wife and was convicted of 34 counts
of fraud for lying to financial and election regulators. As the saying
goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every single time, shame on
me.
I would suggest that we should instead trust what this individual
said when he was on the campaign trail, when he promised to enact
revenge on his political enemies.
Trump and Musk now have information that they could use to identify
individual taxpayers who, I don't know, contributed to a charity that
they oppose for selective retribution.
If they got control of the stop payment controls, they could now
block congressionally mandated payments for healthcare, roads, and
bridges; or to Governors or attorneys general who are currently suing
to block their unconstitutional actions in the courts.
With the personal information that they have hacked into, they could
go after judges who have forced them to pay hundreds of millions of
dollars in penalties after being convicted in jury trials of fraud and
defamation, and they could go after companies who compete with one of
their many private entities.
As long as those risks remain, we have to assume that this is going
to make every single American less likely to trust that they can
provide their personal information to the United States Government.
To put it bluntly, what they did last week compromised the full faith
and credit of the United States. If the President and Elon Musk were
acting under the direction of a hostile foreign government, this is
exactly what they would do.
Mr. Speaker, I am not saying that they are. I don't know. What I am
saying is that, if their actions serve only to weaken the United
States, that is at the benefit of Russia, China, Iran, and all of the
other countries that my colleagues across the aisle claim to love less
than the United States.
A functioning Congress would provide oversight. A functioning
Congress would be subpoenaing witnesses and demanding public testimony.
A functioning Congress would be treating this like the five-alarm fire
that every American understands that it is.
Yet, here we find ourselves knowing only that the Republican
leadership is completely unwilling to fulfill their oath to defend our
country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and unwilling to
protect the prerogatives of the House.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that I am wrong, but my fear is they are a lost
cause, which brings us to my bill with Congresswoman Stevens.
I know that there are Republicans in this body who love our country.
There are Republicans in this body who I truly love and enjoy their
company, and I know that they have told me privately that they are
offended and ashamed by what Donald Trump is doing to it. Some of the
Republicans have even called it out.
All it takes now is for three of my colleagues across the aisle to
stand up to ensure that these last 22 days are an anomaly in our
history rather than the beginning of its end.
For any Republicans watching who are, shall we say, democracy curious
in this moment, who privately acknowledge that this has gone too far
but worry about the political and, worse, personal threats that will
surely come if Republicans stand up to Donald Trump, I leave my
colleagues with the empathy and the wisdom of Thomas Paine:
These are the times that try men's souls. Many will, in
this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he
that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of
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men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.
Yet, we have this consolation with us, that the harder the
conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too
cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives
everything its value.
To my Republican colleagues: The times have found us, and America
needs them.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the Congresswoman from Michigan, Haley
Stevens, my esteemed colleague and author of this bill.
Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Casten), for his remarks, his dedication to this Chamber,
to this process, and to the lawmaking. We are both in our fourth term.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you in obliging us with this Special Order on
the grand discourse of our democracy.
It has always been a delight to work with Mr. Casten, a longtime
member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, a dedicated
member of the Financial Services Committee, and a thinker, to say the
least.
When we came together last week to introduce H.R. 1101, the Taxpayer
Data Protection Act, I actually don't think that that piece of
legislation was on our minds until we witnessed the very troubling,
concerning, and questionably legal actions of an unelected bureaucrat,
billionaire, appointee going into the Bureau of Fiscal Service to get
access to the wires and the information of our taxpayers to do God
knows what with.
All of a sudden, the phones of Members of Congress were ringing off
the hook: What is going on?
I couldn't take two steps in my beloved Oakland County in southeast
Michigan, the district which I am so proud to represent, without
somebody asking me, in deep concern, what was going on.
Mr. Speaker, I mentioned Mr. Casten's background, which was also tied
to business and certainly tied to the workings of our Congress, but I
happen to be a former Treasury official. I went into the Treasury
Department as a political appointee right after an oath of office was
taken in the early, early days of President Barack Obama's
administration because I was a part of the auto rescue team.
What we were looking at was actually a real crisis in this Nation.
For the kids watching back home, I don't know how old they are and how
much they would remember, but we had a great recession going on. We had
double-digit unemployment. We had a rocked financial services sector.
We had an insurance market that was practically crumbling. We had
housing with subprime mortgages up the wazoo. There weren't for-sale
signs in front of people's homes.
Then there was the question about what was going to happen to General
Motors and Chrysler because they were staring liquidation in the face.
Mr. Speaker, this Congress, in a different session and a different
time, almost in that lameduck period before President Obama took
office, passed something known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program to
stabilize, ameliorate, and address our economy to make sure it didn't
roll off of a cliff.
The Main Street effort of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was this
effort to save General Motors and Chrysler from liquidation along with
millions of jobs across this country, including 200,000 in Michigan.
They all came into the Treasury Department, from the smallest of
suppliers, to the mayors, to the auto dealers, small businesses in
their own right, even the foreign original equipment manufacturers,
saying: Do not let them liquidate.
We used $80 billion of taxpayer money, which, by the way, was
repaid--which, by the way, worked and which, by the way, rebounded the
U.S. auto industry.
Did you hear that point? The Federal Government made money off of the
$80 billion to save General Motors and Chrysler. Now we have a strong
manufacturing economy with true innovation happening, and we are
producing and making cars at a rate that was unfathomable at that time,
over 15 years ago.
Never once, by the way, did we ever question or seek to knock on the
door of the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which is off campus, by the way.
It is not in the main Treasury building. We had bipartisan emergency
workers. We had people from the Bush administration stay on. We had
people from the Obama administration coming in. We were trying to save
this country from falling off of a cliff. We were trying to save us
from a true great depression, and no one was meddling in the wires.
Mr. Casten and I had to write this bill, the Taxpayer Data Protection
Act, to put up and remind ourselves of guardrails. The painful point of
this is that we are waiting and eager and just wondering when our
colleagues, who don't even seem to be in this Chamber right now, are
going to give us the bill to lower the price of goods? We are waiting.
I had a meeting in my district on housing. I brought all of the
stakeholders together. We have beautiful homes in Oakland County,
Michigan, but we don't have enough of them. We have homes that need to
be rehabbed. There is building that needs to happen. So I brought
together, as Members of Congress do, all of the stakeholders. I brought
them together, and we invited HUD.
We invited HUD, but you know what, per a new executive order, HUD
can't go to meetings. So we can't even have a conversation about how
the heck we are going to lower the price of housing and get more
housing built.
Mr. Speaker, the other thing my constituents are talking to me about
on overdrive are the eggs. There are no eggs. We don't have eggs.
Mr. Speaker, there are eggs, but there are shortages on the eggs.
People are going to the store, and they can't find eggs.
There was a headline last week in Pennsylvania that $40,000 worth of
eggs were stolen. Just yesterday, in Washington State, more eggs were
stolen.
I see this Commander in Chief doing all of these press conferences
about every revenge tactic and different type of endeavor for the
Federal Government.
What are we doing about the costs? What are we doing about the costs
of everyday goods?
An executive order came out about the cost of prescription drugs,
which are about to skyrocket again, and it is rolling back what we did
to lower the cost of prescription drugs and put Medicare at the
negotiating table.
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This is unbelievable. This is a simple bill and a simple measure to
protect the American taxpayer, to reestablish trust, yes, as duly
elected Members of Congress, the stewards of the public trust as quoted
and delivered by the great Henry Clay, otherwise known as the great
compromiser of the 1800s.
We are the holders of the trust, so this bill is a matter that should
just be done tomorrow. We should get this done. We are waiting for the
leadership of this very body, those who move the bills to the floor, to
give us something that will actually help the pocketbooks of the
American people.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico
(Ms. Stansbury).
Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, it is Tuesday afternoon. I am here on the
floor of the United States House of Representatives and my question is,
where are my Republican colleagues?
There is not a single one of my Republican colleagues here on the
House floor. In fact, I am standing on the Republican side of the aisle
and there is not a single one in the Chamber right now. While Donald
Trump and Elon Musk and their group of teenage hackers are dismantling
the Federal Government, not a single one is to be found here on the
House floor this afternoon.
Let me say to the American people: This is not normal. What is
happening right now in this country is not normal, and Democrats are
fighting back.
We are fighting to defend the Constitution, the rule of law, the
separation of powers, vital funding for our communities, the health and
safety of our people, and saving our democracy because what is
happening in this country right now is not normal.
Over the last 3 weeks since Donald Trump took office, Federal
agencies have been dismantled. Thousands of Federal workers have been
fired and put on leave and are left in limbo. Millions in Federal funds
have been frozen for our communities and your private data has been
hacked by a group of teenage software hackers at the Department of the
Treasury.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are breaking the law daily inside of these
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agencies. In fact, not only are they breaking the law, they are
violating the Constitution, appropriations law, and statutory law.
There are 55 court cases pending right now in front of Federal courts.
Federal stays filed by Federal judges to stop Trump and Musk from these
illegal activities, and Democrats are here on the House floor fighting.
We are fighting in the Halls of Congress. We are working with our
allies on the outside to fight in the courts, and, yes, we are fighting
in the streets alongside the American people.
Where are the Republicans? Have you so abdicated your constitutional
responsibility that you can't hold your own party accountable?
Just last week in the Oversight Committee, we asked for Elon Musk to
come testify, and when we tried to subpoena him, Republicans went out
of their way to stop him from appearing in front of the United States
House of Representatives' Oversight Committee.
If Republicans are so proud of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are
doing inside of these agencies, then why are they trying so hard to
shield them from public scrutiny and appearing in the people's House?
What the hell is going on? That is what the American people want to
know.
Why are they trampling on their fundamental rights as millions of
Americans are terrified right now across this country, and we know that
thousands of their constituents are calling their offices as we speak.
Seniors and elders from our communities are afraid that their Social
Security checks aren't going to come. Housing and homeless
organizations are afraid they are going to have to shut down and not be
able to give out vouchers so that people have housing. Food banks are
concerned they are not going to have enough funding to get to the end
of the month to make sure that families can eat.
Hospitals and clinics are wondering if they are going to have to shut
down whole parts of their treatment to the public, universities whose
funds have been frozen, and State, local, and Tribal Governments who
are continuing to get notifications from the administration that their
funding is not coming, even though a court has already ordered Donald
Trump more than once that they are violating the law.
Where are our Republican colleagues? Why are they pretending like
there is nothing to see here? Maybe it is because while we are standing
here, they are literally meeting behind closed doors putting together a
tax package that has yet to see the light of day, that will literally
make permanent the largest tax breaks for billionaires in the history
of this country.
That is right. That is what they are up to. That is what they are
doing. Do you know who those tax breaks are going to go to? They are
going to go to people like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and all the
billionaires and millionaires who are serving in the Cabinet right now
and giving unfettered access to Elon Musk and his software engineers to
hack your private data.
How are they going to pay for it? They already told us how they are
going to pay for it. They are going to steal your Medicaid and your
Medicare. They are going to do it by illegally shutting down grants and
funding for these agencies and for all of the countless services and
programs that we know they are hacking this data to do.
We know what they are up to and the Republicans are acting like there
is nothing to see here because they are in on it. That is why they are
not here on the floor. That is why they are missing. That is why they
are letting Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley buddies raid the Federal
Treasury.
We want you to know, the American people, what is actually going on
here. Tomorrow, in the very first hearing of the Oversight Committee's
new DOGE Subcommittee, Democrats are ready to fight. We are ready to
show the American people what is actually happening and how we are
fighting back to defend and to serve our people and to reveal what is
actually going on not only in this Chamber but across this town as they
try to dismantle our agencies and funding.
I say to the American people: Not only are we fighting for you but
continue to join us in the fight. We need your voices. We need them
loud. We need them clear. Keep calling your Republican Representatives,
keep calling us, and let them know not only is this not normal but this
is not okay. We are going to continue to fight for our democracy.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin
(Ms. Moore).
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I took the following oath my
20th year in Congress. I will read it and remind you, Mr. Speaker, of
this oath of office: I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that
I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or
purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the
duties of the office of which I am about to enter, so help me God.
This is an oath, Mr. Speaker, that you and I took.
Mr. Speaker, this was not an oath that they gave to the Democrats,
this was not an oath that they gave just to the Republicans, this is an
oath that we all took, and the insurrection continues.
The insurrection really started, I think, December 14, 2020, when all
of the electors in various States had put together their scheme and the
plot to overturn the government. January 6, 2021, we saw the beginning
of the insurrection.
Four years later, we re-elected Donald Trump and the insurrection
continues. It started with just pardoning violent criminals, people who
caused the death by suicide and other means of police officers, who
speared them and caused injuries to police officers and the
insurrection continues.
We now have unelected billionaires who have broken into the Treasury
Department and this is not a political grab for power; it is a crime
what they did. It is criminal, and courts have backed this
understanding up.
They have said to the Treasury Department: We want you to stop
getting people's personal information. Stop getting their Social
Security numbers. Stop putting your thumb drives in and taking it off
to some laptop because we don't know what you are doing with this
information.
Mr. Speaker, guess what?
Elon Musk and our Vice President, this is from the day's paper, have
said that they should just ignore those court orders. These court
orders should not matter, that they should continue to violate the law.
Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of a colloquy, I will ask the gentleman
from Illinois a question.
I marched into our Speaker of the House's office to try to meet with
the Treasury Secretary to ask them why they were committing crimes. Why
there was unchecked authority over the Treasury data, to stop doing it?
Why they needed to do this? Why they needed to surveil, penalize, or
control this financial access?
The Speaker told me he had no idea what they were doing. The Speaker
of the House does not know what they are doing. These are the same
people who have taken the same oath of office that all of us have
taken, to have these 19-year-old kids with microwave processed security
clearances, if they even have that, putting thumb drives in our
mainframe.
I am asking you, Mr. Casten, what does your Taxpayer Data Protection
Act do to stop that?
Mr. CASTEN. The first thing we do is make sure that unless you have a
security clearance, a top-secret security clearance, you cannot access
those records.
The second thing it does is, if you have not been a Federal
Government employee for at least a year, you cannot access those
records. You cannot access those records if you are a special
government employee because, let's remember, we have to have oversight
over the people who are doing this.
People need to disclose what their conflicts of interests are, which
brings us to the fourth piece. You cannot access those records if you
have a conflict of interest.
Let's just say, hypothetically, you were running a satellite company
that had large contracts with the United States and were also doing
business in China and you might have reason to gain that system, that
would be a conflict of interest.
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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Let me get this clear: Have any of those
conditions been met?
Mr. CASTEN. No.
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Has anybody gotten the appropriate security
clearances? Have they told us what they are going to do with it? What
of Article I?
We are Article I of the Constitution. Americans elected us to
represent them, 300 million Americans, and the President of the United
States says that he does not have to--Mr. Speaker, I realize that I am
not supposed to mention his name. I didn't mention his name, but Mr.
Speaker, I associate myself with the words of the gentlewoman from New
Mexico, this is not normal. We are not having a normal session.
Mr. Speaker, the House is on fire. The House is on fire. There is
nothing legal or constitutional that is going on. We have unelected
billionaires running the country. We have a President who is pardoning
violent criminals. I suppose if they ignore the court orders, he will
just have his daily list of people that he will pardon, so they can
continue.
{time} 1445
Mr. Speaker, the House is on fire. The insurrection is continuing,
and it is affecting you whether you are a Head Start child out there
who needs it, a senior in a nursing home who will get inadequate care--
you are going to be lying in your feces for 10 hours because they are
cutting Medicaid--or a farmer who has not gotten your USDA funding.
The House is on fire. If you are a Social Security recipient, they
have gone in and created a back door to your data. They know your bank
account number.
The House is on fire, you-all. We need to stop acting like things are
normal. It is not normal.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms.
Moore) for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner).
Mr. TURNER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend was Super Bowl
weekend, and of course, I was in my district in Houston, Texas. I went
back to get prepared to go to several events in reference to the Super
Bowl. I thought the number one question that I was going to be asked
was who I favor since the Houston Texans were defeated by Kansas City
on their way to the Super Bowl.
However, all this week, Mr. Speaker, the question that kept coming
back to me was: Congressman Turner, what is happening in D.C., and what
is this about our personal information being in the hands of someone
else?
From one event to the next, I was stopped and got these questions
over and over again.
At the Super Bowl party, I guess you could say, again I thought
people would be focused on Kansas City or Philadelphia, but when I
arrived, people would come up to me and say: What is this that I am
hearing about my personal information possibly being in the hands of
someone else?
That is what I had to deal with this entire weekend. It is an issue
that we simply cannot ignore, that someone--let's say, in this case,
Elon Musk and his team of engineers--would go to the United States
Treasury Department and literally take it over and have access to
people's Social Security information, Medicare information, Medicaid
information, taxpayer information, and the list goes on and on. This is
a payment system that literally processes about $6 trillion on an
annual basis.
When I came to this Congress as a new Member, that was not one of the
issues that I thought I would be facing in the first month of being
here in this 119th Congress, but it is an issue that I have had to deal
with now over and over again.
Then, the next question that came to me, Mr. Speaker, was: All right,
Congressman Turner, you are there, so what are you all doing to protect
our information? What is the next step? What is Congress intending to
do?
That was a difficult question to answer. What I did say to people is
that many of us are not in agreement with what has taken place over the
last few weeks. We did not approve someone coming in, taking over the
U.S. Treasury Department, and obtaining your private, confidential
information without your consent, so we are standing up and speaking
against it.
Let me point out, which I think this is important, the questions that
came to me did not just come from Democrats. The questions were also
coming to me from Republicans, moms and dads, people who care about
their information when they have heard so much about cybersecurity
threats and information being stolen. That is what came to me.
For 8 years, Mr. Speaker, I was the mayor of the city of Houston, a
nonpartisan position. As the mayor of a city, potholes are neither
Democratic nor Republican. When it rains, it doesn't just fall on
Democratic neighborhoods; it will fall on Republican neighborhoods. I
have had a reputation of trying to call it as I see it, call a ball a
ball and a strike a strike.
In this case, when I was at home, I heard from people from all walks
of life and both sides of the aisle concerned about where their
information was going, who had it, and whether or not the people who
now have it were sufficiently vetted.
I could not say to them that the persons who have their information,
who are going through their information, and who are using it for
whatever purpose, that they have been sufficiently vetted. I can't
respond to that. Literally, I can't respond to it because it was an
issue that has not been debated on the House floor, but it is an issue
that is important to moms and dads; people who are on Social Security,
Medicare, or Medicaid; and for taxpayers who don't like sharing their
information with just anyone.
I have been a lawyer for 40-plus years. During that time, there are
certain things that are just very important for the average person, and
their information is that important. My mom did not graduate from high
school, and I don't say that in a negative sense because she and my dad
raised nine kids and, I think, did an outstanding job. My mom, after my
dad died, guarded her information very carefully, and a lot of things
she would not even share with her kids. I was a lawyer in the family,
but she was always concerned about who had access to her banking
accounts, Social Security number, and things of that nature.
Right now in America, whether you come from Houston, Texas,
California, Massachusetts, or Georgia, people are concerned about who
has their personal information. If this issue is so important, then
this is an issue that should be debated in the people's House by those
of us who are closest to the people who we represent.
That is why I am a strong supporter of the Taxpayer Data Protection
Act. Mr. Speaker, when I came here during orientation and in the days
since, I was reminded that this Chamber is the people's House. We
represent the folks who are closest to the ones who we speak for and
should represent.
Now, I am not one who wants to stand up and demonize Elon Musk. I am
not that person. However, when Elon Musk steps into this role with his
team that very few of us have ever met, then he steps into the arena
where we are the ones with the responsibility of safeguarding the
American people's interests. Elon Musk and his team should not carry
any more weight than those of us who have been duly elected and
represent the people in our districts, in this country.
This is an issue, Mr. Speaker, that should be fully debated in this
Chamber in the people's House. It is simply that important. That is why
we must immediately debate and pass the Taxpayer Data Protection Act,
which will protect our Nation's payment system and give hardworking
Americans some sense of security.
I close by saying this: This is not a partisan issue. It is the
people's interest. Throughout all of last year, we talked about what
the people wanted, the real issues that affected real people. Nothing
hits closer to them than their medical bills, their Social Security
information, and their taxpayer information. People should have a right
to know who holds that information, what they are doing with it, and
how it is being used.
Congress has a responsibility here, Mr. Speaker. We cannot abdicate
our role. If we are not allowed to debate it and decide what is in the
people's interest, then we may as well go home
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and allow Elon Musk and his team to sit in these chairs and make the
decisions on what happens in our future.
That is something that I find unacceptable, so I am asking for
Congress to debate this particular bill, the Taxpayer Data Protection
Act, and allow the people's House to decide who should hold their
information, who should have access to it, and how that information
should be used. If we fail to do that as Congress, then we have
abdicated our role to speak and represent the people.
Regardless of what district, regardless of what city or State, I hope
we will not abdicate our role, be we Democrat or Republican. The people
need to know that we stand up and represent their interests.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Illinois has 18 minutes
remaining.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, Joseph Stalin said that one death is a
tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic. When we talk about
constitutional crises and hacks into $5 trillion systems, that risks
sounding like a statistic.
I want to share just a couple of stories from my district--I
represent, like all of us, \1/435\th of the population--to understand
the real-life consequences that are happening now, first because of
what Elon Musk and Donald Trump have done and second because of the
failure of this body to fulfill its oversight role.
When these announcements came through, one of the first calls I got
was from a local homeless shelter. They had been almost immediately
locked out of their HUD portal. They were unable to receive any more
payments. That means that 200 people in my community who thought they
had housing for a cold night in the middle of January were at risk of
being put back out on the street.
I got a call from a county health department that was wondering if
they would be able to fulfill their WIC obligations. These are the
payments to women, single women often, who have new children and are
trying to make sure that they can get food. They didn't know what to
tell these women, who relied on them for food and nutrition, about
whether they would have the resources to keep their children alive.
The department of health and human services that called my office
said that any pause of this legal, congressionally mandated funding
could force them to shut down their employment and residential services
offered to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
What you do to the least of these, you do unto Me, right?
Four hundred people in my district and their families would have been
shut out of that critical program.
I have heard from almost every single town in my district. Republican
mayors, Democratic mayors, Federalists, Whigs, you name it, they are
all calling and asking me whether the Federal Government will fulfill
the obligations that they have underway for bridge repair, road repair,
rail grade separations. They are wondering if they should continue
those projects and potentially shift the risk onto their constituents.
What do they do if they don't have the borrowing capacity? If they
have to shut down the project, can they finish it because it will
probably raise the costs? This is all being done by a White House that
claims to be pursuing financial efficiency.
At a local organization that provides victims of domestic and sexual
violence with legal counseling, they have about 2,000 survivors they
serve each year. They said that they are going to have to immediately
scale back services and potentially close down entirely.
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We are getting calls from people saying if a billionaire is so intent
on cutting their access to Social Security, what happens to their
health payments? I had a woman, who was a decent, kind, hardworking
person, asking me if she should even bother paying her taxes this year
because it is clear that Elon and Donald are dodging theirs and that
they are defunding the enforcement agencies that would run an audit,
and asking why she should even trust a Trump-led Treasury Department
with that information.
These people are not limited to my district. They are not limited to
people who voted for Kamala Harris. This hack affects every single one
of us. Three patriotic Americans, Republicans, are all we need.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms.
Houlahan).
Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Taxpayer Data
Protection Act, but before then, I will hold this piece of paper up for
just a little while because it is my anticipation that before I finish
speaking, the internet will have transcribed this piece of paper and
the data that is in it.
Mr. Speaker, what if I told you that, somewhere in the multiverse,
there was a person, dare I say a villain, who was intent on accessing
all the data of the world's most powerful nation and of all of her
people. Imagine him sitting in his lair. Perhaps he is stroking a cat.
In his mind's eye, he envisions the files of data that he and his
minions will soon have access to. Perhaps he will have access to your
Social Security number or perhaps your health information. Perhaps he
will know about your financial status or what you buy. Perhaps he will
unilaterally refuse payments to the defense programs, take a cut of his
own from payments, or even will authorize contracts to only his very
favorite people and his very favorite organizations.
He will also know deeper secrets that our government works so hard to
make sure remain so, so that our citizens can be protected, and so will
our adversaries have those same secrets, either intentionally or
unintentionally.
You would probably really enjoy this scenario if it were the plot of
the new 007 movie, but imagine if it wasn't just a plot and that it
was, instead, a reality. This is, in fact, what president Elon Musk and
his unelected, unvetted, and untrained minions are attempting to
accomplish.
Elon Musk is not rooting around in our Treasury data so he can find
fraud and waste. He does not care about curbing spending or getting the
budget balanced. He is not trying to optimize our Nation's wealth or to
help us all make smarter choices. He never cared about any of this, and
he never will.
Yet, knowing this, Trump has, in fact, set him loose on the hunt for
data. Make no mistake about it, he is attempting, if he has not
already, to access this cache of information, both the personal and the
national interest information of our entire people and our entire
Nation that will forever be his and his minions' and at their disposal
forever, should they be successful.
My guess is that by now, the internet has already translated this
piece of paper into data because that is the way the internet works.
That is not a read-only piece of data. You may have been able to read
it, but in that space of time, my guarantee is that someone on the
internet has not only translated it but is also now spinning it into
different directions and thoughts.
This all should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans for all
kinds of different reasons. It is a blatant and overt theft of
information that is not theirs to have. Think of the power that that
information will wield. It is a violation of our Constitution and of
the checks and balances that we all grew up honoring, regardless of
what party we associate ourselves with.
What is a person to do? A person has to think hard about how they
feel about the means and ends. You may be one of those people who
believes that this government needs to be held in check. I understand
that you may have voted for this, but is this, in fact, the way that
you want this to be accomplished?
You should be concerned that the law is being broken in your name.
You may be one of the people in the middle who fears that your
information will be used against you and just now is waking up and
realizing that this may not be exactly what you want. You should also
be outraged and concerned.
If you are one of those people who never signed up for this to begin
with, I am truly sorry. We are in a situation right now where the
House, Senate, and White House are all under Republican control. We
need all of you, all three different kinds of you, to tell us to do our
jobs.
[[Page H637]]
What does doing our job look like? It looks like supporting this bill
that is on the floor, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. What it looks
like is passing this bill on the floor with a resounding majority and
making sure--a la ``Schoolhouse Rock!''--that it goes to the Senate as
well and that it gets to the President's desk with a veto-proof
majority.
What it looks like is stopping the executive orders and actions of
the executive, Trump, so that this kind of thing cannot continue to
happen. The legislative branch, us, but really specifically the
Republican majority today are the only ones who can put a stop to this
dangerous lawlessness, but they are not going to do that even though
they will privately acknowledge how wrong it is, even though they
privately hope that Musk and Trump will wear themselves out, even
though they privately hope the courts will work, and even though they
privately say it is read-only access and is not that much data.
Mr. Speaker, it is dangerous, unconstitutional, and illegal. I ask my
friends to step up and speak up. Please continue to call your
Congressmen, particularly your Republican ones.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Kennedy).
Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the
Taxpayer Data Protection Act. I thank Congresswoman Stevens and
Congressman Casten for introducing this important legislation.
The American people deserve a government that protects their most
sensitive personal information instead of one that allows an unelected
billionaire to rifle through it.
The Treasury Secretary shirked his duty and granted Elon Musk and his
so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to Treasury
payment systems. This isn't efficiency. It is an outright betrayal of
the public's trust.
Under this guise of efficiency, however, this administration has
handed over Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries' private data to
a billionaire with no oversight and endless ways to profit.
Make no mistake, this is not about improving government operations.
It is about consolidating power in the hands of the few at the expense
of hardworking families, at the expense of the 167,000 western New
Yorkers in my district who rely on Social Security benefits and the
335,000 taxpayers in my district who file tax returns every year.
Fortunately, attorneys general from New York and 18 other States
sued, and a judge has blocked Elon Musk's access.
The Taxpayer Data Protection Act would protect any unelected
billionaire from having unlawful access to private and sensitive data.
This bill would restore proper safeguards for the Treasury and ensure
that no administration can hand over control of taxpayer data to an
unelected, unvetted, and unqualified billionaire.
Mr. Speaker, we will not stand by as our institutions are auctioned
off for the rich to profit at the expense of hardworking families. I
urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in defending
the well-being and security of the people we were all elected to
represent.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr.
Neguse), the assistant Democratic leader.
Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank my colleagues, Representative
Casten and Representative Stevens, for their leadership and courage of
conviction in taking on this important legislative effort.
Over the past 3 weeks, America has watched with alarm as President
Trump and his administration continued to throw the Federal Government
into chaos, slashing funding for a variety of different programs,
unlawfully attempting to freeze Federal programs, and ultimately, in my
view, taking steps that are unconstitutional and inconsistent with the
values of the American public.
My office has been inundated in particular with calls from
constituents who are deeply troubled and concerned, Mr. Speaker, about
what is happening at the Treasury Department.
The Trump administration has placed an unelected billionaire and his
associates in extreme areas of power, giving them access to Americans'
most sensitive information. Americans are outraged. They are right to
be outraged.
The good news, Mr. Speaker, is that we have a legislative response
that would ameliorate this particular challenge, and that is the bill
that Representative Casten and Representative Stevens have introduced,
the Taxpayer Data Protection Act.
It is a simple bill, a straightforward proposition that your data,
Mr. Speaker, your Social Security number and identifying information,
just as every American's, should be protected.
One would think that that would be something that every Member of
this body could agree upon, yet we have been unable to convince a
Republican colleague, a colleague from the other side of the aisle, to
join this effort.
We only need three, Mr. Speaker, three Republicans who decide to do
the right thing, to stand up for the American taxpayer, to protect
their data. If three join Mr. Casten and Ms. Stevens, we can get this
bill across the finish line.
House Democrats will certainly continue to do everything in our power
to achieve that outcome. I thank the Representative from Illinois for
his leadership and for continuing to make the clarion call to the
American people about this particular issue.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, some people have said that this bill is
unnecessary because what is being done by the White House is simply
going after waste, fraud, and abuse. I want to explain why that is
actually the opposite of what they are doing.
First, we have to clarify that all of us in this body are the fiscal
custodians of our Nation's wealth. To allow corruption or waste to
persist is to squander the taxpayers' hard-earned money. We are all
aligned on that issue.
Second, I would note that while we certainly have had our share of
financial scandals and corruption over our history, they have almost
always involved the illegal transfer of wealth from the government to
the private sector--from patronage jobs to no-bid contracts to inflated
hotel rates for Secret Service agents at the Trump hotel.
There is a pattern there. The easy proof of that is that while our
Nation seems to have a lot of billionaires lately, you won't find them
among our country's TSA workers, air traffic controllers, food
inspectors, IRS agents, soldiers, intelligence officers, or the
numerous other people who have dedicated their lives to public service,
which makes sense.
Those of us in public service have chosen to live lives of elevated
public scrutiny. A free press keeps tabs on us. Inspectors general and
whistleblowers exist to ensure that grift and fraud are caught quickly.
If the Trump administration were genuinely concerned about waste,
fraud, and abuse, what would they do that would be consistent with
existing law? That is pretty easy. They would submit budget requests to
Congress to increase funding to inspectors general and whistleblower
protections. They would notify Congress of specific areas where they
believe this abuse is happening, ask us to pass laws to close
loopholes, and increase funding for enforcement. They would use their
bully pulpit to strengthen the rule of law, remind everybody that there
is a higher ethical standard to live to, and demonstrate by their
behavior that they live by that standard and demand it of others.
That is the exact opposite of everything they have done. They have
failed to submit budgets. They have ignored Congress' congressional
power of the purse, putting spending decisions in the hands of
economically connected oligarchs. They have fired or are threatening to
fire inspectors general and whistleblower advocates, making it harder
for ethical Federal employees to call out fraud when they see it.
They are firing FBI and other law enforcement officers who could
prosecute those crimes, including ones who have active cases ongoing.
They seem to have a specific bias, I would note, against FBI officers
who are pursuing prosecuting waste, fraud, and abuse against the Trump
family.
They are pardoning people who assaulted police officers and sending a
message to the American people that ethics don't even matter. If you
ignore the law, you can ignore the orders of
[[Page H638]]
the court, according to JD Vance, because we are now living in a post-
congressional era, according to OMB Director Russell Vought.
They are doing that while giving access to the Federal payment system
to people who are not cleared and are massively conflicted. What they
are doing is a case study in how to expand, perpetuate, and get away
with waste, fraud, and abuse. A Congress that fulfilled its obligation
to act as a check and balance on the executive branch would put a stop
to that immediately.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
THE SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Illinois has 1 minute.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Takano).
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, if you were approached on the street by a
stranger and asked for your Social Security number, your home address,
or your bank account information, you would say no. When the government
asks for this information in order to process Social Security checks or
a refund, Americans say yes because there is an expectation of privacy
and trust.
{time} 1515
Mr. Speaker, they trust that their information won't fall into the
hands of bad actors. They trust that their information will be secure
with people who are qualified, vetted, and who have been proven worthy
of having access to our sensitive data.
This administration has allowed this trust to be broken. I was quick
to cosponsor the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to protect the Nation's
payment system from reckless and unlawful interference.
It would require anyone who is accessing this system to have a
reliable track record of professional service, the necessary security
clearance, made an ethics commitment, and has no conflicts of interest.
I will note that The New York Times reports that Elon Musk will make
no public disclosure of any conflicts of interest in his financial
disclosure.
Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President and to direct their
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
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