[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 16, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H4319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR DOGE
(Mr. Larson of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 5
minutes.)
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to
discuss something that should alarm every American citizen.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, DOGE or so-called DOGE employees, have been
rummaging through people's individual Social Security records.
For the general public's awareness, DOGE is the so-called Department
of Government Efficiency, initially led by Elon Musk until there was a
breakup of the bromance between he and President Trump, but DOGE still
persists.
Mr. Speaker, as you know--and it has to be as much a concern to you
as it is to me--having more than 127,000 Social Security recipients in
your district whose information is private and secure, is being
rummaged through by twentysomethings who have no accountability, have
never been vetted, and who will not come before Congress.
I asked Chairman Estes last week in our subcommittee meeting to bring
DOGE forward to please tell us what they are doing rummaging through
everyone's personal data and information.
Ranking Member Neal and I are going to introduce a resolution of
inquiry to bring DOGE before Congress. Every Member, Republican and
Democrat, should be concerned about this. Every American citizen should
be aware that DOGE has taken all of that information and stored it in a
cloud, a/k/a another site that is vulnerable, that anyone can hack
into, and that the Social Security Administration has no access to. No
one is allowed to look at that data who hasn't been vetted, as was
testified before the Ways and Means Committee last week.
How is it that DOGE employees are exempt because they are above the
law? It requires the United States Congress to call them in front of
us. If they are doing such a great job with efficiency, and if that was
their goal, clearly they ought to be able to come before Congress and
testify as to what they have found.
Mr. Speaker, I think every American should be aware that what is
really going on here is an attempt to get at your data and your
information and to further attempt to privatize Social Security. That
is the end goal.
When you look at the layoffs that have occurred at the Social
Security Administration, when you look at what has happened to the
regional offices, when you look at the basic phone service and the
inability of people to contact and speak with a human being, it should
astound and awaken every single American.
I hope that all Americans who may be listening to this or people in
the audience who may be listening to this take to heart what is
happening with their personal data and information.
Why should anyone, let alone unvetted, unaccountable DOGE people, go
through your personal records? Why do they need that information? What
does that have to do with government efficiency, and why did they steal
them and put them in an unsecure cloud that anyone could hack from the
outside?
This is an abomination, and it needs to be corrected. It can very
easily be corrected by the legislation that we have introduced calling
to make sure that DOGE comes before Congress.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans need to stand up and call them to come
before us.
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