▶ 0:17:57for e
▶ 0:18:51let's the committee will come to order welcome to today's markup of two resolutions of the inquiry from committee Democrats Democrats are attempting to undermine the critical work being un being done under President Trump to root out waste Fraud and Abuse across the federal government all in an effort to save taxpayer dollars and make important programs work better more efficient and more effective for the American people my Democrat colleagues claim
▶ 0:19:21their concerns are about process and careful vetting but the truth is is that they have never found an ounce of government fat that they're willing to trim Doge has a clear mission to end the rampant waste Fraud and Abuse in the federal government at the treasury Department employees are cleaning the do not pay list to ensure taxpayer money does not end up in the wrong hands surely we can all agree that terrorists
▶ 0:19:52frauders dead people they don't deserve taxpayer dollars I'd like to remind my colleagues of the facts Doge employees are government employees Doge was authorized by the Senate confirmed treasury secretary to access certain treasury payment systems on a read only basis just last week president Trump reiterated that different leadership has that department
▶ 0:20:22leadership has the final say over the makeup and activities of their agencies this is not a case of Doge employees running wild the treasury Department and White House even signed a memorandum of understanding preventing Doge from accessing personal taxpayer data a doge employee can only see taxpayer data that is disconnected from any personal identifiable information this is the same level of access already
▶ 0:20:52granted to some academic researchers and it professionals at the IRS doge is performing a similar mission of helping the agency get back to the basics we must in the Biden administration's focus on auditing more middle class Americans and shift back to administering the tax code the agency has struggled for years to perform basic task like answering the phone every American
▶ 0:21:23who has interacted with the agency knows that we don't have to we don't have to tell them that if Doge can reform the IRS and make make it improvements to cut weight times why is that a bad thing my Democrat colleagues have also conveniently ignored longstanding concerns with the lack of guard rail surrounding IRS employees accessing the agency's data systems as of 2017
▶ 0:21:53the IRS had been unable to produce a complete list of every agent who has access to the integrated data retrieval system or individual Master file systems where was the interest where was the interest for my Democrat colleagues in taxpayer security then no hard evidence has been presented that accusations of illegal access to taxpayer information by Doge employees are true
▶ 0:22:24are based in fact on the contrary during a recent oversight subcommittee hearing a witness testified there was no evidence for Democrat claims of illegal access or illegal disclosure of taxpayer data all Democrats are in have the rumor and hear say for a party obsessed with quote misinformation it appears they don't mind spreading their own it seems Democrats are only interested
▶ 0:22:54in oversight when they are out of power when Democrats are in power they do nothing about taxpayer privacy instead they are choosing to drum up false accusations at its heart this Roi is nothing more than a sad attempt by democrats to throw sand in the gears of the Trump administration's important work to expose the waste Fraud and Abuse in our government when Americans voted for President Trump they sent a message that they want
▶ 0:23:24Washington to stop spending money on stuff that does nothing to serve the people every year the federal government makes makes up to 521 billion in improper payments according to a recent GAO study no one can argue that we don't need to take serious and Swift action to root out that waste doge is fulfilling the mandate to reign in an unaccountable and Bloated Federal bureaucracy
▶ 0:23:55this request for information is a nothing more than manufactured outrage that does nothing to serve the American people I now recognize the ranking member from Massachusetts Mr nil for his opening statement thank you chairman today's markup of these two resolutions of inquiry is an important step in ensuring that Congress continues its important job of oversight over the Executive Branch let's be clear what we are seeking today is transparency from the Trump Administration and Doge as to what they have done behind
▶ 0:24:25closed doors at agencies that carry sensitive personal information of every American taxpayer we are looking for information passing these resolutions would ensure transparency in our government rejecting them would allow the executive branch to once again hide in the darkness from the American people this unchecked Authority that they alleged that they have let's State the obvious there is nobody 300 years old receiving a social security check it's important that members of Congress continue using every tool available
▶ 0:24:55to conduct necessary oversight of the Trump Administration and for the good of the American people it is both unclear and unsettling why Doge continues to seek access to private confidential information at agencies across government behind closed doors while telling the American people something entirely different no one should be rumaging through the confidential information of private citizens at any agency incidentally if there's waste Fraud and Abuse weed it out and get rid of it is there anybody on this side of the aisle
▶ 0:25:26that campaigned on the argument we're for more waste Fraud and Abuse no chance privacy is next to Liberty in our democratic system yet the president and his billionaire cabinet are jeopardizing that standard for their own power and House Republicans haven't so much as raised an eyebrow about what's happening tens of thousands of people in the Veterans Administration being laid off what has happened without any questions being raised by our colleagues on the other side Americans should know that every time that their
▶ 0:25:56health is threatened and well-being of the the American people is not being taken up by our Republican colleagues they refuse to even raise the alarm let me applaud ranking member dogget and ranking member Larson for their steadfast leadership in holding Doge accountable in protecting the American people's private data what we have seen over the last seven weeks is unacceptable unaccountable and unelected people with no experience in the systems of government are rifling through
▶ 0:26:27citizens data under the false guise of waste Fraud and Abuse they are seeking to dismantle institutions let me tell you how this will work people won't answer the phone because of these layoffs and then Republicans will say this demonstrates the government doesn't work after they went along with the layoffs of not allowing people to answer phone president TR Trump and Elon Musk should be answering the questions that members of Congress have legitimately so which we would have done with any other
▶ 0:26:57executive this this oversight is a fundamental responsibility of Congress and Democrats are the ones that are going to step up and we should be having our Republicans assist us in fact yesterday our colleague stripped this body of one of the most fundamental constitutional responsibilities oversight of the executive on trade the courts have spoken they want limits on Doge they want to make sure that this information is not tampered with yet as we have seen recently Do's Representatives won't take
▶ 0:27:27no for an answer the 24 year olds are rummaging through all of your personal information now they're attempting to use a database at HHS as a backd door entrance Trump and his allies have made clear that the Americans private and sensitive information is Theirs to harvest whenever they want all of this while our Republican colleagues remain silent never asking one question they defending is evasive assault on privacy for years our colleagues
▶ 0:27:57have disliked Social Security President Bush attempted to privatize Social Security Now the argument is if we just lay off those employees because of inefficiency so when those calls are not answered they once again will blame social security for being inefficient how about the idea that the richest man in the world call Social Security a Ponzi scheme and nobody on the other side raised a word when you hear Ponzi scheme it implies an illicit illegal activity tens of millions of americ
▶ 0:28:28Americans since Mr Roosevelt signed that document have benefited from an earned benefit we are fighting to protect 70 million Social Security beneficiaries from an outof control executive branch and we intend to protect the data of every American the American people deserve answers as to what's happening to Social Security treasury and every other government agency has found itself in Do's crosshairs you need to speak up on the other side ask some questions about where
▶ 0:28:58this is all headed and with that I yield back the balance of my time thank you the committee will now proceed to consideration of hres 127 without objection the measure will be considered as read and open for Amendment at any point does anyone wish to strike the word Mr doet thank you Mr chairman though I must say your rash and misleading statement indicates your desperation in protecting Doge from the least bit of accountability you don't realize that there is a big
▶ 0:29:28difference between truth and truth social it's called reality and the reality is a rampage has been going on through our government all we are asking for in this resolution is truth facts there is nothing in this resolution that should slow the effort if it is legitimate by Doge for a moment you're he Doge has confused billions and millions it double counts its body count and it expects us to accept on fath
▶ 0:29:58value as you and your Republican colleagues have every word of propaganda that they spout today we are concerned that Americans right to privacy is under attack on multiple fronts the only privacy in which this Administration and you have shown the slightest interest is the privacy of elen musk and his Department of government evisceration Doge are more accurately dodged since it Dodges all forms of accountability so thick has been
▶ 0:30:28the veil of secrecy surrounding Doge that Trump's attorneys actually represented in federal court that Elon Musk was not directing it El's multiple tweets and president Trump's recent recognition of him during his Congressional address make clear that it is indeed the unelected billionaire who's calling all the shots today's resolution of inquiry is unusual because these are unusual times and usual
▶ 0:30:58events this resolution represents a very modest effort to penetrate the secrecy and determine the extent of the administration's invasion of the privacy of just about every person in America mus has accessed and is attempting to access the personal and confidential information of our fellow citizens without our knowing the full extent of what data he's gotten to what he's copied how the data uh is or will be used by them and
▶ 0:31:28the names clearance levels and the training of the individuals who access the data that's the kind of facts that we seek today not to slow any legitimate effort to reduce whatever waste Fraud and Abuse they can find though we have yet to see a single case of fraud referred for prosecution anywhere because fraud is a new term used by this Administration to Simply mean anything they don't like like the reasonable administration of the Social Security an in Internal
▶ 0:31:59Revenue system like corrupt which is applied to anyone who has the courage to stand up to this Administration what we have is an extreme breach of privacy the resolution which I am offering on behalf of every Democratic member of this committee simply ask for documents relating to doa's access to and usage of first the treasury Payment Systems Second the confidential taxpayer information protected by federal law and third
▶ 0:32:29the screenshots taken of Treasury Payment Systems data by a member of Doge tell me how any of that slows a legitimate investigation no it does allow a little accountability it allows the public to know how much damage they've already incurred this resolution of course would be unnecessary had this committee shown the slightest interest the very slightest interest in protecting privacy and demanding even a smidgen of accountability for Doge six weeks ago speaker
▶ 0:33:00Johnson committed to a hearing before our committee on Doge but he obviously had not received permission from his boss Donald Trump to do that at the oversight hearing neither musk nor anyone from Doge or the administration showed up to answer a single question and you're right a witness testified she had no evidence of uh any wrongdoing here because she had no evidence of anything about this and was not associated with Doge or the administration and of course other than a few words of praise from musk and Republican plans to declare
▶ 0:33:30his birthday a national holiday and carve his face onto Mount Rushmore the majority has offered nothing but silence as Mr Trump followed Mr musk directive to fire more veterans than any president in American history and continue to seek highly sensitive private information one would expect that Republicans who want a legitimate investigation of waste Fraud and Abuse would not leave that witness chair empty this morning it is empty it has remained empty
▶ 0:34:00has as has their commitment to any responsible oversight over this Administration this committee is supposed to be a guardian of sensitive taxpayer information instead it has appeased Mr musk and given him access to anything he desires I yield back additional members wish to strike the last word Mr Thompson thank you Mr chairman I was a little miss ified to hear you say that uh this is all about
▶ 0:34:30quote stuff that does nothing to serve the American people uh I don't believe uh that's what this is about at all this is about transparency the stuff that you claim doesn't serve the American people uh we're concerned about like Social Security veterans benefits and Medicare these all concern the American people and the American people are fed up with this Administration and Doge assessing our government's payment system
▶ 0:35:01and taxpayer data it's understandable why they're worried the treasury and Doge has refused to answer our letters our calls and our requests for information if you've done nothing wrong and you've got nothing to hide then respond to our requests and better yet come before this committee don't leave the chair empty testify my constituents the American people and all of us should be concerned with what Doge and its leader Elon Musk
▶ 0:35:31is doing with our data Elon Musk receives billions of dollars in government contracts and now has access to the federal payment system and has seen sensitive taxpayer data to date he has not filed a financial disclosure he's not disclosed conflicts of interest nor given up control of his companies that are receiving billions of dollars in government contracts we have no assurances that he's not using
▶ 0:36:02this information for his own personal gain in fact Mr musk has already used this Administration for his own benefit Doge has already targeted the Department of Labor Consumer Financial Protection USDA EPA Federal elections commission Department of Interior Department of Defense Department of Justice securities and Exchange Commission and the office of government ethics all of
▶ 0:36:32whom have been investigating musk or one of his businesses and I'd like to ask unanimous consent to uh add to the record this report from the uh Judiciary Committee uh regarding these issues without objection thank you doge is not about going after waste Fraud and Abuse if it were they wouldn't have fired all of the inspectors General that that's where you start the investigation to find the waste Fraud and Abuse
▶ 0:37:02instead they're using their time to pass a bill that critical programs like Medicaid and extends tax cuts to the top uh 1% of the of the uh American people my Republican colleagues seem tired of hearing from the American people who are complaining about Elon Musk president Trump and Doge because uh from refusing uh to you see this because they're refusing to call the secretary and
▶ 0:37:32Mr musk before this committee you know this because their leadership are telling members to stop holding Town Hall meetings refusing to meet with your constituents who were concerned about these issues I've never seen such a thing in my entire time in this uh in this uh office to my Republican colleagues this problem will not just go away on its Zone however it can go away if you vote for this resolution
▶ 0:38:03and demand answers from this Administration the American people may have voted for change but they did not vote for chaos they did not vote to end Medicaid they did not vote to fire more veterans than have ever been fired before in the history of this country they did not vote to end or greatly red reduce Social Security I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution
▶ 0:38:33and let's get disclosure let's get transparency and let's get Witnesses in this committee to tell us what they're doing and answer our questions on behalf of our constituents and the American people I yield back Mr Larson uh thank you uh Mr chairman uh this is indeed a uh a sad morning very sad
▶ 0:39:03morning when this committee the oldest and most continuous in the Congress neglects its responsibility and essentially holds this hearing today to block any further discussion the men and women on this committee are good people they're honest and caring people and that's why I do not understand why
▶ 0:39:33you would relegate committee to no longer being of significance and resort to saying you will do whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump tell you to do where's the independence of the committee where's the legislature we're an equal branch of government and you start off with a
▶ 0:40:03blather and yet we look at the empty seats here where's Elon Musk I'm sure he's a genius and is a very credible person because of the wealth he's accumulated but that does not put him Above the Law or the responsibility to come before this Committee in this Congress if he's so great if these plans and all the Fraud and Abuse that he's found are so eminent why isn't he here explaining it
▶ 0:40:34you know why cuz he's out to privatize Social Security he's been on television the last couple of days talking exactly about social security Medicare and Medicaid and what he intends to do privatize it the American people some of them may have been born at night but not last night people are aware of this every single one of your districts
▶ 0:41:05all the money that comes in monthly and you have not done you as a Congress have not done anything in more than 54 years and now you have someone coming in to privatize a system something you have longed to do going back to 1982 because Elon Musk thinks that this is the best thing to do president Trump has called Social Security a scam Elon Musk as chair it's Mr
▶ 0:41:35Neil said called it a Ponzi scheme ask that of the people in your District ask that Mr Smith of the more 198,000 people in your District who rely on Social Security and you won't even let the person who's planning to PR privatize it who's telling the big lie in front of everyone in bold as he possibly can saying
▶ 0:42:05this is what we're going to do the Congress is in our back pocket we don't even have to come before them and testify because we control the house we control the Senate and we control the presidency and it's the tyranny of the executive it's why these resolutions were first adopted back in 1789 because the founding fathers knew that the executive branch does not have authority over the
▶ 0:42:36legislature unless you have a willing party that says no we're going to do exactly what you tell us to do Mr musk and Mr President it doesn't matter to our constituents it doesn't matter how much money they are not going to receive we're not even going to tell them the truth about what's going to happen to them and every single one of these where they're being shut down and their personnel
▶ 0:43:06and as Mr Neil said Dan and after you cut and eliminate the people say the agency isn't responding accordingly no other agency operates for under less than 1% with that they administer to over 70 million people in the nation's number one one anti-poverty program for the elderly and Shame can't
▶ 0:43:37bring people in front of this body if he's right if they're so good if they're so just why aren't they here telling the American people about it they're not because you know the truth it's about privatization I yield back no time to yield Mr Arrington I can hardly sit here I was hoping to just let my Democrat
▶ 0:44:07colleagues sound off this morning get through their one act plays and but I can't I can't sit here and listen to this uh grandstanding uh they wear their armor of in IND Nation proudly but we know what's underneath that and I hate to question the motives of my colleagues but but um this is this is
▶ 0:44:38we have touched the nerve Mr chairman and we have entered the inner sanctum of the Democrats Temple and I think that Holy Grail is the government and their unionized government employee and if you get anywhere near it this is the reaction you're going to get my friend said they didn't vote for these things they didn't vote for this deep cleaning
▶ 0:45:08in the bureaucracy they didn't vote for uh the kind of rooting out of waste and fraud but they they they say that in a with a false narrative and with fear-mongering for Medicaid beneficiaries and they try to scare no sir I got to finish this they're trying to scare our seniors and scare the most vulnerable um that's a a longstanding tactic but the but the American people didn't vote for transgender operas in Colombia but
▶ 0:45:38where's the indignation on that can I haven't heard a single person talk about about that what about the transgender comic books and the Dei musicals in Ireland and all this absurd and insulting example after example of just complete and utter wasting the taxpayer dollar the GAO the government accountability office that's a government entity so you ought to bow down to that Authority as well and accept it hookline and sinker
▶ 0:46:09for their data and statement on fraud which is up to $5 trillion over the 10-year window $5 trillion where is the outrage on all of that I've never heard it not one time this is um I hear hear about the unelected billionaires because you all love class Warfare you you you love to divide people by race and gender and and class that is the mo it's
▶ 0:46:39it's I mean God I love you guys uh as people but your party is broken and bankrupt and that's why the PE the the the taxpayers put this president in office and gave us uh unilateral uh unified Republican because they want us to make sure that their tax dollars are protected and that they're being spent wisely and that we act as fiduciaries and
▶ 0:47:09that the people who were intended to get benefits from these programs are getting them but not illegal immigrants and not people that are not qualified I see I see I see the list you're holding up enough with the theater where is the where Where is the outr are you not insulted by this list you want me to read this list you want me to go through the same list uh of uh indigenous people inclusive Justice primary
▶ 0:47:40literacy female empowerment uh personalized 3D avatar tools for gender identities this is stupid this is stupid Mr chairman reclaiming my time you got your time where was the concern for conflicts of interest and abuse of power when the IRS leadership and the special prosecutors from the Biden doj
▶ 0:48:10were obstructing the investigation into the hunter Biden scheme and your president said I don't know anything about it never been involved and we knew that wasn't true we discovered it wasn't but where where was the drive and the passion that I see from you my colleagues on that uh issue and the transpar transparency or lack thereof uh for the last two or three years I never see this
▶ 0:48:40until we're talking about the tip toale audit of the federal government to root out wasteful spending and and act as fiduciaries on behalf of the taxpayers it's unbelievable to me unbelievable um but I think it's on such display today that the American people in their good judgment are reading right through it just like I am and again if you want to wander in the wilderness for 40 years uh you're
▶ 0:49:10you're you're making a good case to do that to the American people uh they're on our side on this issue uh with that Mr chairman I yield back Mr Davis I move to strike the last word shair I ask you now ious consent to submit for the record this Democratic letter to secretaries Bennett besset and Kennedy on the national new hires and I give 30 seconds to
▶ 0:49:40uh representative Larson without objection so ordered to just say to my friend over there I never heard him mention once Social Security that's what we're talking about I never heard you mention at all the 135,000 people in your District that rely on this have you told them about Elon Musk plan have you told them about all the Fraud and Abuse that they're receiving is it Fraud and Abuse in your District that for the
▶ 0:50:1195,000 retirees for the 14,000 disabled workers for the 10,000 parents for the 4,800 spouses or the 9,000 children that's what we're talking about social security and the lack of your willingness to bring before us the person who has said they are going to privatize it and therefore cut and hurt
▶ 0:50:41these benefits of these individuals tell the truth if you're for privatization put your plan out there and vote on it reclaiming my time Mr chairman president Trump allowed the biggest Federal data breef reach in history when he allowed Elon Musk and his hackers to steal Americans extremely Private Financial and health information from the treasury Department we don't know if Mr musk will illegally stop one's Social
▶ 0:51:12Security tax our Medicare payments we don't know if he'll sell our information to the highest biller or delay government contract payments or grants to his competitors or people he dislikes we don't know if the mus hackers with histories of racism who took screenshots of private information and shared it with the proud boys when treasury erected some barriers the Doge
▶ 0:51:42hackers W in to HHS to get the tax data from the child support data sets this committee has an obligation of oversight yet my Republican colleagues objectively refuse to exercise their constitutional obligation to ensure the executive branch follows the law the Republican failure to protect our democracy Congressional Authority and American
▶ 0:52:12privacy is beyond alarming this Republican oversight failure is cooped with the intense efforts to undermine tax enforcement for the wealthy with the when when the house crr the Republicans were champion of 41.8 billion recision of funds to modernize the Internal Revenue Service and make sure wealthy tax cheats
▶ 0:52:43don't pay what they owe the Trump Administration is doing irreparable harm to our country and citizens by accessing the treasury payment systems and Democrats today are demanding that the Republicans step up and do their jobs demand the answers from the administration owed to the American people after the CR 41.8 billion dollar
▶ 0:53:14would have been rescinded Public Law 11805 1.4 billion FY 24 Omni 20.2 billion FY 25 CR 20.2 billion sum total of 41.8 billion taken from the American people in a real kind of way Mr chairman this
▶ 0:53:44is unfair unethical and unconstitutional I you back Miss Sanchez thank you Mr chairman I want to commend and representative doet for leading this resolution of inquiry regarding doa's access to the treasury payment systems and confidential taxpayer information the president has allowed Elon Musk to run rampant in federal agencies without any congressional oversight
▶ 0:54:15particularly egregious and why we're all here today is his access to all Treasury Department payments including payments of Social Security and Medicare benefits Congress can't sit idly by as our Democratic institutions are dismantled by a billionaire from within it's our duty to find out exactly what private and sensitive information is in the hands of Elon Musk and his doge Bros
▶ 0:54:45I'm calling on my Republican colleagues to join us in this inquiry stand up for your constituents don't hide and refuse to hold town halls and to be accountable to the people who elected you to serve them it's critical to ensure the Integrity of treasury's payment system and more importantly the Privacy the privacy of Social Security Medicare and taxpayer information president Trump surrendering control of the government to Elon Musk
▶ 0:55:15is a direct attack on our democracy it is Congress congress's responsibility it is a congressional responsibility to exert its oversight to prevent this constitutional overreach the presidency is the most powerful position in the world but a president without Congressional oversight is just a king and we don't have Kings in a democracy this shouldn't be a partisan fight it's a
▶ 0:55:45fight for our democracy it's a fight for our free and Democratic institutions Democrats are outraged but we need our Republican colleagues to join us and stand up for the rule of laww you guys talk a great game when it comes to rule of law but when it comes to exerting congress's power as a co-equal branch of government you guys are hiding in the shadows stand up for the people who elected you to come here and represent their interests
▶ 0:56:16but if you won't even face them in a town hall and listen to them should we be surprised that you don't want to exert that power to hold this administ ministration accountable I yield back the bounds of time Miss delb thank you Mr chairman I moved to strike the last word um my constituents are confused and Afraid and rightly so they want answers to very basic questions
▶ 0:56:46they want to know why Donald Trump has given Elon Musk and his doge team access to extremely sensitive private personal data that's supposed to be protected Ed by the treasury Department and the Social Security Administration they want to know what musk's unvetted and unqualified acolytes are doing with their social security numbers their home addresses their income levels and confidential medical records that they were required to submit when applying for disability
▶ 0:57:16they want to know how a president could support these unlawful breaches into the databases of taxpayers and Social Security recipients which puts their livelihoods at risk and as bad as that is there's so much we don't know that's why we're asking Republicans to join us and vote for these resolutions of inquiry this is pretty simple um they ask very simple questions like what confidential taxpayer information has
▶ 0:57:47Alan musk and Doge accessed um why is this controversial we are a co-equal branch of government we are are in charge of oversight if you feel like there's no concerns here then why wouldn't you want that information to be out in the public for people to be able to ask questions and get um and get a response this should be easy if you're not concerned um instead Republicans are hiding um and that's why we're
▶ 0:58:17sitting here at this moment you know before Congress I was the director of the Washington State Department of Revenue and so I know firsthand how important it is is to protect sensitive information from Bad actors in order to maintain public trust in government and now the public wants to know if our government is the bad actor illegally sharing personally sensitive data that could result in your identity being stolen or your medical records being leaked you know I have been pushing for nearly
▶ 0:58:47a decade to pass a National Data Privacy Law to put people back in charge of their data and protect personal information what is more personal than your social security number or your medical history or your financial history so and especially when we look at medical history we've seen Republicans going after women seeking reproductive care um people are worried about health care being cut um targeting those with pre-existing conditions or whoever else they want to
▶ 0:59:17Target next of course people are concerned about how information will be used we should be trying to strengthen privacy laws not undermine existing laws by letting random Doge staffers breach existing law by accessing private taxpayer data this should be a bipartisan effort to get answers to questions and it's incredibly disappointing to see Republicans trying to avoid even the most basic questions from being asked um and as congresswoman
▶ 0:59:47Sanchez uh suggested to um maybe not surprising if folks aren't even willing to uh have a town hall and listen to the constituents so um um it's important that we ask these questions and it's important that we get answers and a yield back Mr smucker thank you Mr chairman it's fascinating this morning to hear the faint outrage of outrage of uh the Democrats uh today it's it's as if they haven't heard the message of this previous election like it never
▶ 1:00:18occurred I can tell you in my district what the American people wanted was to prioritize America PRI prioritize the American people over the bureaucracy over the massive federal government do you know today that government spending is 36 over onethird of GDP this is what the Democrats are defending over 3 million employees in the federal government alone not including state and local and the the
▶ 1:00:48uh fallacies that have been brought up here today Social Security being privatized no one has mentioned that in fact the the president has said he wants to protect Social Security look at his record in his first four years no that I will not yield look at his record in the first four years he did nothing nothing to hurt to to change Social Security in anyway uh and he said multiple times he's going to protect Social Security going to protect Medicare and I
▶ 1:01:18can tell you every Republican on this side of the aisle believes and agrees that we should protect the the vulnerable among us we should protect those service those uh programs for individuals who truly need them who have been paying into the system so it's bizarre it's outrageous the kind of things um that they've been saying now let's let's talk a little bit about uh a musk and Mr Larson in particular knows that
▶ 1:01:48Social Security will be bankrupt in 9 years or 10 years at that point no I'm not going to yield you you you had your time you had your time uh will'll be in 9 or 10 years projections show that what is owed in Social Security will be more than we're taking in so you ought to be you ought to be extremely happy if we're finding waste in the system because
▶ 1:02:18every dollar of waste in Social Security in Medicare in every other program every dollar of waste fraud is a dollar that is available to the people to the recipients who deserve that service so you know many presidents have tried this we've we've seen under the Clinton uh years they trim back the Federal Workforce Nixon talked about it but this is finally a president who's willing to take on The Bu bureaucracy and really make a difference
▶ 1:02:49three million employees you don't think that we can find some ways to trim and you know we've seen we've heard reports here there's waste all over the place there's fraud and what what uh Mr musk is finding uh could could it impact our deficit in big way the American people know that we're about we're bankrupt the American people the American people know we're bankrupt just think of this this year we're spending 7 trillion
▶ 1:03:20and we're taking in five you're all voting to you're you're arguing to keep that if we don't change our course if we don't change course we're going to see a sovereign debt crisis and every American is going to be gent yield no I'm not going to yield you voted to you you have you'll have your time I'm not yielding uh we will have a sovereign debt crisis if we don't change course and where we should start is exactly what the president is doing root out every bit of waste and fraud that we can find
▶ 1:03:50that's where we should start it might make an amazing difference this is why by the way I think you're in the wrong side of this I think the American people are going to see the kind of waste and fraud they support this why do you think today why do you think today the majority of the American people support what Elon Musk is doing why do you think today the majority of the American people support what the what the president is doing but and one other thing you keep talking about him he should be right here you can follow what he's doing he's doing interviews
▶ 1:04:21he's he's got doj.gov he's uncovering what he's doing this is this is not someone who is doing this in the dark he's being very open about what is uh what is happening so again I think you're on the wrong side of this the American people side with with us today they sided with us in this previous election and you keep this up they're going to be siding with us with many elections to come I you back thank you I um we'll make sure that whenever
▶ 1:04:51we give five minutes to each member it's honored without disruption when a member says they do not yield do not continue to go after the member and try to take away their time miss you my I mve to strike the last word in the absence of any strength from Republicans and delusional statements about access to musk and with representative doets leadership
▶ 1:05:21Ways and Means Democrats are stepping in to do what the majority on this committee has refused to do fulfill our constitutional responsibility to conduct actual oversite and finally get answers from the Trump Administration about what exactly Elon Musk and Doge accessed altered downloaded or used when they were improperly given access to treasuries payment systems and taxpayers protected
▶ 1:05:51confidential information now representative Mo and I tried to get answers directly from the speaker and the treasury secretary we then urged the speaker and the chairman to hold a proper Hearing in this committee to get answers from musk and officials and Ways and Means Democrats have sent letters and introduced amendments to demand answers from the administration but so far Republicans have refused to
▶ 1:06:22act this resolution of inquiry is only necessary because in the face of extremely troubling facts Republicans have pretended not only that there's nothing wrong but that Congress has no right to even understand what musk and Doge are doing it is astounding to think that Republicans have been so unquestionably submissive and obedient to Trump and musk that they cannot even bring
▶ 1:06:53themselves to even ask questions about their actions and whether it invades confidentiality let alone question the firing of many thousands of federal employees including 80 80,000 from the Veterans Administration and the firings of Inspector generals who are to have oversight over all our federal departments I remind my colleagues that it was just
▶ 1:07:23last year that Democrats join you in passing legislation to increase penalties for violating confidentiality it is the height of hypocrisy not to support this resolution inquiry but Dems will not be submissive and obedient Democrats are
▶ 1:07:54demanding on behalf of all our constituents who are also demanding to know what Elon Musk has done with their confidential information I urge support for both resolutions of inquiry under cons consideration today and I would yield the balance of my time to um Mr Thompson uh thank you uh congresswoman Chu I I just want to point out that you know the righteous indignation
▶ 1:08:24that we heard from some of my colleagues on the Republican side of the of the Das just amazes me you know this idea that nothing was done in the dark and all all of this for crying out loud you all heard the guy say that people 300 years old are collecting Social Security that statement is made by someone who's absolutely full of prunes the one gentleman who was uh who was referring to all this waste Fraud and Abuse is the chair
▶ 1:08:54of the budget committee if there's all this waste fraud in the bru why haven't you guys fared that out and brought it Forward you've been in charge for the last three years the time I've been up pretty high on this di so I've been around a while 74% of the time that I've been in Congress I've been in the minority so are you saying that because there's all this waste Fraud and Abuse you guys have been asleep at the switch and I'll guarantee you none of my constituents
▶ 1:09:25and none of your constituents voted the way they voted to end Medicare Medicaid to privatize Social Security to fire thousands of veterans from the good jobs and the good work that they're doing that that is just absurd to think that that's the case if there is Wade Fraud and Abuse we should be working together to find it the inspectors generals most certainly should not have been fired they're the ones on the
▶ 1:09:55point of the spear who are who are charged with doing that this empty witness seat in front of us speaks volumes towards the insincerity insincerity that we're seeing today are you'll back gentleman yields back and now recognize Miss Moore for five minutes strike the last word I move to strike the last word Mr chairman you recognize thank you so much and I want to thank my colleagues uh and so I don't want to Fain any
▶ 1:10:25outrage here I just want to keep the main thing the main thing what we're talking about here is a resolution that of Mr dogget that I co-sponsored to is a resolution of regarding the accessing of our private taxpayer data by an uh by an unelected
▶ 1:10:55someone who is uh actually ineligible to run for president multi-billionaire who's had no Senate confirmation uh no oath of office no ethics training or anything that he's taken and he has violated section 6103 now I've been on this committee long enough to really see the outrage that we have had on this committee about violations in section 6103 and I just want to remind you Mr chairman that we were so outraged
▶ 1:11:26that we um that we increase the penalties you know don't forget we increase penalties on violations of 6103 and so we simply are making an inquiry as to what this man is doing with our data why he's accessing it and that's really a fair question and what do we find ourselves facing when we do this all these non seiters
▶ 1:11:57you know trans people and what money is spent on condoms and uh you know um I mean if you don't if you know undocumented immigrants that's what we do for a living we voted you know we've got very qualified capable people on the Appropriations Committee on your side you know who can go through you know budget you know account by account and eliminate what you call Waste
▶ 1:12:27Fraud and Abuse it's a nonse because that has nothing to do whether that's true or not if someone is getting a social security check and they're 300 years old that's a terrible thing but it doesn't have anything to do with an ineligible person accessing our data and so I uh I just want to make sure that we stay on the subject we not talking about trans people today
▶ 1:12:58or the 0.002% of people in America who apparently are are uh trans people uh we're not talking about undocumented immigrants uh and we certainly are not talking about um anointing an unelected uh naturalized citizen not not born here in America citizen who who's a billionaire to be able to march in with
▶ 1:13:28Federal Marshals even at the direction and to literally threaten people out of their seats to access our information so now if this is not a crime that has been committed which is what I think it is then we should have Mr mus sitting there explaining to us how going through our social security information our taxpayer information is going to R us of the problem of trans
▶ 1:13:58people how it's going to solve how it's going to reconcile you know the majority parties concerned about diversity equity and inclusion you know what's the plan for excluding uh uh uh people uh through going through our personal information there's it's a non secador and I would yield the last uh 55 seconds to my good friend Mr lson Mr Larson's recognized thank you Miss Moore
▶ 1:14:28and uh let me say um having uh both chaired the Social Security subcommittee and now being the ranking member uh yeah uh I get upset because of what's happening to the people these are good good and decent people on both sides of the aisle
▶ 1:14:59but fundamentally you're telling me that there is no obligation to have the man who's been placed in charge of finding $2 trillion in Cuts who has said publicly on more than one occasion that yes 70% of the budget is Medicare medic Social Security and defense and that's what we're going
▶ 1:15:30after only one of those areas has a trust fund 2 tril 700,000 gentleman's time has expired I yeld back Mr chairman thank you I now recognize Mr Kelly to strike the last word thank you chairman I'd like to yield my time to Mr smucker Mr smucker is recognized just just like to make a point in regards to act access to taxpayer information I would assume that every employee
▶ 1:16:00of the IRS has access to taxpayer information I would assume particularly those who are auditing accounts are going to have access to some uh taxpayer information and I just want to remind folks listening that the Democrats just last year were advocating to hire tens of thousands more maybe as many as 880,000 addition Auditors or at least people in the IRS all of who have had had
▶ 1:16:30access to taxpayer uh information we're talking maybe a hundred people here who have potential access to taxpayer information will the gentleman Y and no and I want to remind one other thing there was a leak of taxpayer information a massive leak and we're learning that may have baned 450,000 tax payers information or more and I didn't hear a lot of outrage from Democrats
▶ 1:17:00because it matched their political narrative that you know they they they it was it was the taxpayer information of some of the highest income earners and I heard a lot of celebrating maybe not here but a lot of Democrats across across the country celebrated that an independent contractor who did have access to taxpayer information released that information to the American public where was the outrage we're hearing today then where was the outrage
▶ 1:17:30then are you back you gentleman yels back Mr boils recognized to strike the last word thank you uh Mr chair uh you know I would encourage everyone uh not just the the members of this committee but everyone who is uh watching and listening to read this resolution it'll only take you a couple minutes it's just two pages um this is about as straightforward a resolution as it gets I I honestly don't
▶ 1:18:01understand why anyone would vote against this it is providing all of us necessary information about what exactly has been accessed that's important information if you care about privacy if you care about security um and frankly I would think that if those those who are involved with Mr musk's effort are proud of the work they're doing I would think
▶ 1:18:31they would want this information to be out why wouldn't we want to give taxpayers and all the American people transparency why wouldn't we want a full airing of exactly what has been accessed the logs the documents our private information I'll save any comments about social security until later when we're on that resolution but specifically in treasury they have access to our social security
▶ 1:19:01numbers date of birth home address our full employment history salary if some 21-year-old frat bro working for Elon Musk has access to that I would rather like to know it I think the uh folks who I represent 765,000 of them in the city of Philadelphia absolutely want to know who is seeing their most private data and most private information I think that that
▶ 1:19:31transcends whether one is a Democrat Republican independent voter or non-voter I think frankly it is just common sense and at the very least this is something that all of us as fellow Americans should be able uh to vote and provide that level of transparency to the American people and those who don't want to provide that level of transparency it raises questions why don't they want that transparency
▶ 1:20:01now I have a few uh further things I could say but I want to yield to uh my good friend and colleague Mr doet of Texas the two and a half minutes remaining well thank you very much we've heard a lot of huffing and puffing we've heard distraction to foreign aid and many other issues but not one of the Republicans who have challenged this resolution have given us any reason any explanation as to why musk needs every American's taxpayer data their banking
▶ 1:20:31their social security records and who knows what else these Federal databases that the Musketeers have sought access to even contain sensitive information on child custodial Arrangements that are used in administering the child tax credit and so while tax season is underway American taxpayers particularly deserve some answers and I've been getting calls from people in Austin expressing concern and suggesting that they want to delay the filing of their
▶ 1:21:02tax return this year because they're not sure that they want an unelected billionaire going through it and invading their privacy on some illegitimate fishing Expedition a number of these constituents have questioned whether they can be sure that their information is safe some are holding off on filing and in fact they're not alone because so far this tax filing season about 2 million fewer Americans have filed their taxes compared to the same period last year the young genius hackers
▶ 1:21:32that musk hired as Musketeers had their own website hacked last month raising questions about their ability to protect this data I'm particularly pleased that uh Mr smucker mentioned Mr Nixon you know we have had a previous criminal in the White House and his name was Richard Nixon and because of his lawlessness this Cong Congress reacted finally belatedly to the Watergate uh events and one of the things the Congress did because
▶ 1:22:03a lawless Nixon Administration attempted to weaponize the IRS against its opponents uh was to pass a new law and it's that new law that's being disregarded it required that taxpayer data be treated as strictly confidential not subject to inspection or disclosure except in the very most limited circumstances a penalty of five years in federal prison could apply and the Congress also passed the Privacy Act of 1974 both in reaction to a lawless
▶ 1:22:33president now we have Lawless invasion of those records again and it's incumbent on this committee to fulfill its responsibilities rather than to yield all of its power to musk and Trump gentleman's time has expired I now recognize Mr buer to strike the last word Mr chairman thank you I move to strike the last word gentleman's recognized the resolution of inquiry is simple support it and you honor the transparency Elon Musk promised us oppose it and you believe
▶ 1:23:03that the activity Elon Musk is conducting should remain hidden from the American public the activity where he and his team of special government employees gain access to sensitive databases this is one of the concerns I'm hearing in an uproar from my constituents including conservatives and Republicans there's absolutely no reason those should be trying to access treasury payment systems and confidential tax information without permission without approval from the American public in Congress I'm deeply concerned that this Contra is breaking many laws that congress
▶ 1:23:33has put in place I let an in an investigation earlier this week with my colleagues Jamie Raskin and Maxwell Frost to the office of government ethics inquiring about the potential criminal exposure of the volunteers and the employees of do to ensure that those individuals know that their ethical and legal responsibilities under the law particularly conflicts of interest interest we know that the statute of limitations is up to 5 years so that's past the length of this Administration and violations can lead to criminal penalties of up to 5 years in prison
▶ 1:24:03with additional Financial penalties and I'm deeply concerned that these violations are happening left and right and those fears could be assuaged with the transparency that has been promised to us and by the way who is doing it has Marco alz been rehired to continue working on Treasury payments you can't tell me that a government efficiency requires self-described racists access to government's most private information I urge everyone to support this resolution and provide much needed transparency into why and how musk has sought treasury payment information
▶ 1:24:34and America's sensitive data if no laws have been broken there's nothing to hide and the defining feature of this 119 Congress has been his abdication of responsibility running in fear from our constitutional Authority on trade on Appropriations on National Security my number one question of my constituents is when will your Republican colleagues step up and do their jobs we should not continue that today Mr chairman I yield the balance of my time to Congressman doin thank you very much uh so let's
▶ 1:25:04turn to the multiple efforts of Doge to invade Americans privacy Republicans cannot justify and have not justified for one second this morning why that Invasion occurred and they refuse to bring anyone they leave the witness chair empty for us to inquire regarding what what happened here and how much damage was done so we proceed without full information but what we do know is that first Mr mus sought tax information that is housed in the
▶ 1:25:34treasury's Bureau of fiscal services and when the former nonpartisan top career official at the treasury Department a trusted guardian of Americans privacy under both Republican and Democratic presidents for more than 35 years when he rebuffed musk and said he wanted to protect the Privacy as he had done for three decades he was pushed aside while Administration officials initially testified that Doge was granted read
▶ 1:26:04only they were just going to read and invade our privacy that way the sensitive data they were later and forced to admit that the Musketeers had both read and write that is they can make changes in the sensitive databases related to Federal Tax Returns Social Security benefits supplemental Social Security intercome benefits and pay for veterans not satisfied with this temporary access to American families financial information must then came
▶ 1:26:35uh for some of the even more highly guarded taxpayer data that's contained in the IRS integrated data retrieval system this is a system to which access is denied to political officials even the IRS commissioner the taxpayer Advocate and the IRS Chief Information officer and I want want to respond directly to you Mr smucker about that and your claim that there were hundreds of additional people that we wanted to have go into all this data what we wanted was to enforce the tax laws
▶ 1:27:05we wanted the tax cheats to be brought to Justice you all took the cop off the beat but let me make this point the data that musk and the Musketeers are seeking that they perhaps got exposed is data that is so sensitive that even the IRS commissioner is not entitled to see it that is protected data protected until this happened and the claim that because some of it that they got was Anonymous uh would not get into the Privacy was rebutted by Mr
▶ 1:27:35barthol when I questioned him as the head of the joint committee on taxation an independent nonpartisan group who explained to us how that data could be used when Mr musk and his Ai and his minions and his Musketeers get together and compare these databases and invade our privacy we must adopt this resolution I yield back gentleman yields now recognize Mr Evans to strike the last word thank you Mr chairman
▶ 1:28:06Mr chairman this conversation led by Mr do the gentleman could speak into the microphone this conversation led by Mr doy I think he needs to so I like to yield my time to doggy thank you very very much for that uh there are two laws that Mr musk and Doge are ignoring they are section 6103 of the Internal Revenue code and the Privacy Act of 1974
▶ 1:28:36section 6103 which has been before this committee on numerous occasions uh protects the confidentiality of tax returns and return information including all of the uh tax return information that is received or collected by the Internal Revenue Service the Privacy Act of 1974 was designed to provide individual Americans with more control over the government Gathering disseminating and using uh our private
▶ 1:29:07information what's happened to the Libertarians in the Republican Party who once believed that government was a challenge and that the privacy of American citizens should be protected from the overreach of government what we have here is an overreach without why is it necessary in fighting waste Fraud and Abuse to interfere with the personal data of American citizens every citizens uh the issues that we have
▶ 1:29:37before us today uh are that Doge has also sought access to omn what are called Omnibus sharing agreements this is another aspect I've not touched on so far and these Omnibus sharing agreements would let musk link individual tax data across a whole host of different federal agencies a federal statute makes it unlawful for the IRS to share tax perior data with other agencies for reasons unrelated to the administration of our tax system
▶ 1:30:08New York University tax law Center experts indicate that such an Omnibus information sharing agreement across agencies would not conform with the sck restrict rules of 6103 that govern how and when taxpayer information can be shared and so again here is an area that needs to be explored other than through an empty witness chair to find out about the extent of the violation of federal law with this sharing agreement that has been rubber stamped by the administration and
▶ 1:30:38most recently just last week Mr musk came for more of American's private information stored in the child support database that is used to enforce court ordered child support payments which is a good good thing but each agency receives tax data that has a detailed data sharing agreement with IRS and they have to comply with those taxpayer privacy protections when that goes over to the Department of Health and Human Services
▶ 1:31:09unfortunately Health and Human Services is now uh run by the vaccine denier Robert F Kennedy Jr and he uh not disregarding really those requirements he gave do do exactly what they asked for it's simply outrageous that Americans private and personal financial information has not been protected from the prying eyes of an unelected billionaire and his teenage Musketeers at a bare minimum Congress and the
▶ 1:31:39American people need a full accounting of what data has been shared with musk and Doge and for what purposes and despite all the rhetoric on the other side we have absolutely no explanation as to why that right of Americans for a full accounting is not being provided why it is being obstructed and blocked by the Republicans answers to this resolution of inquiry on behalf of all the Democrats on this committee will provide us with a
▶ 1:32:09little of that accounting only then can we begin to move forward as a bipartisan majority as the bipartisan majority did over 50 years ago when there was criminality from another Republican president in the wake of the Watergate scandal and address the shortcomings of the enforcement of our tax Privacy Law and begin to restore taxpayer trust in our voluntary tax system the Republicans basically say they don't know and they don't
▶ 1:32:39care what musk is doing with your personal tax return your social security information Your Health Data anything concerning child custody and by blocking this resolution they just want to ensure that no questions are asked and no information about this likely violation of multiple federal laws ever becomes public that's why we should adopt this resolution and I yield back Mr Schneider thank you Mr chairman I move to strike the last
▶ 1:33:10word uh thank you um so many things we've said today we've been here mostly talking past each other on a lot of different things uh earlier was suggested that uh uh we're missing the message of the previous election and uh I think the message of the last election was it's the economy stupid as it's been every election and it was pocket book book issues it was people saying help us not we don't want to just have an easier time making ends meet we want to be able to get ahead
▶ 1:33:41and give our kids a better future the message of the last election was not privatize Social Security make it harder to have security and dignity and retirement it wasn't cutting access to healthcare for 70 million people by slashing Medicaid it wasn't giving up our personal data to an unelected bureaucrat billionaire oligarch so he can profit off of that data and do God knows what else so I'm proud to join my Democratic colleagues today to demand that the Trump Administration
▶ 1:34:11and Alon musk are providing this body as is our responsibility accurate information on what they are doing with the data of Americans they are capturing from the Department of Treasury Alon musk and his team are unelected and unvetted the so-called Department of government efficiency is accessing private systems Laden they are doing so Laden with their own personal conflicts and ethical concerns they have no business
▶ 1:34:41rumaging around taxpayers private financial data and information unfortunately we're seeing at every turn doge is trying to access not just treasury information but information of all departments that they have with our personal information including our individual Social Security numbers our home address our bank account information and so much more now I know from personal experience 20 years ago I had my identity stolen we caught it very quickly likely within hours and yet it took me years to take care of all of the
▶ 1:35:11implications that that had we all get notifications in the mail that this system or that system has been breached and what actions we should be taking we should be protecting American citizens information in this committee and yet what I'm hearing from my colleagues on the other side is talk about fraud waste and abuse we agree everyone on this committee says we should be looking for ways to make government more efficient and more effective and looking for ways to put in place systems to catch and punish fraud waste and abuse
▶ 1:35:42but we're allowing unelected officials to access personal identity that can give them great power over the American people and use improperly can cause great damage the systems at the Department of Treasury contain sensitive extensive details about all of our individuals lives now Alon musk wants you to think that he is a patriot but he is far from it he is not interested in keeping that private data safe in fact we suspect he is more interested in using that private dat data to enrich
▶ 1:36:13himself allowing unvetted and inexperienced Personnel to access this system is a recipe for disaster leaving taxpayers sensitive information vulnerable either by Doge or by external actors what we're asking today and I am astonished that my colleagues are not joining us in this on the other side of the aisle what we are asking for today is that the American people understand and know with confidence what does access of their personal information and how they are using it it's
▶ 1:36:43that simple since my Republican colleagues refuse to apply the normal standards of transparency to Doge we are forced to do so with this resolution today and if I can other things that might have been said that were said earlier we did scream out loud and vociferously when people access uh information my colleague suggested that uh employees at the IRS have access to our our personal tax records some have access to some records
▶ 1:37:13when they have a necessary reason to do so they can't rumage through the system we had a hearing in this committee talking about that no one has access to everything over there until last month when Alon musk and his doge Bros young people who lack experience are exuding in overconfidence and believe they know more than the elected officials sitting on this body they have access to it today we should all be upset and I am astonished by The Silence
▶ 1:37:43the acquiescence the subm subm submissiveness of my Republican colleagues to let the executive branch to do the responsibilities that should be our resp responsibility assigned to us in the constitution in this committee and I wish we could join together to ask for this information to protect the American people I back second oh can I have your 4 seconds yes yes thank thank you so much Mr Schneider and thank you Mr chairman I have a unanimous consent
▶ 1:38:13requests to place in the record the taxpayer Bill of Rights which really elucidates uh the right to of of confidentiality and privacy without objection thank you chairman for the extra time Mr Gomez Mr Horford thank you chairman Smith
▶ 1:38:43I move to strike their last word to the American people I want you to hear this today we are voting for transparency in government there is only one person who's unelected and a bureaucrat who is causing Havoc throughout the
▶ 1:39:13government that is Elon Musk and his hackers now my constituents need and want to know who acts assessed their sensitive data and for what purpose I want you to know that this inquiry specifically states that within 14 days the president provide and direct to the Department of the treasury to the House of Representatives all Communications
▶ 1:39:44related to the access to or the use of the treasury payment system by Doge Elon Musk or any member of his team it also calls for the access to or use of confidential tax returns or tax return information by Doge Elon Musk or a member of his team and any screenshots taken of the data or records in the treasury payment system by
▶ 1:40:14Doge Elon Musk or a member of his team this is common sense this resolution solution of inquiry is simple we are doing our duty as elected members of Congress I don't work for Elon Musk and he wasn't elected to do anything on behalf of the American people so I'm asking for simple information information that should be shared with
▶ 1:40:45Congress now to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle I want to work with you on government efficiency there's several of you that we are actually in those efforts involved with I want to be able to identify ways to make government work for the working people of this country but there's a way to do it and this is not it chaos only breeds further
▶ 1:41:15chaos and my constituents are scared they're worried they're concerned about their personal information being used by Elon Musk and his Hackers from parump to mosquite my office has received calls from constituents concerned about their information being stolen and they have a right to know by whom and for what
▶ 1:41:46purpose Sunshine is the best disinfectant my constituents deserve to know why why an unelected bureaucrat Elon Musk who is the richest person in the world and his hackers are illegally accessing tax data Social Security information Bank information why do they have it and what is the purpose that is the purpose of this inquiry
▶ 1:42:17I am defending the rights of my constituents to know what has been accessed by whom and for what purpose I don't understand for the life of me how my colleagues on the other side would not support this resolution I'm here to defend my constituents that's what I was elected to do Elon Musk you were elected to do nothing get your grubby hands
▶ 1:42:47off of the data of the people of America and the information that they're entitled to remain confidential with that I yield back Miss vany thank you very much Mr chairman Democrats keep criticizing Republicans for not bringing Elon Musk as a witness to speak about Doge's work if my Democrat colleagues want to bring Mr musk in for a witness so badly why don't they invite him to
▶ 1:43:17appear as a witness Democrats are allowed to invite anyone as a witness who can answer their questions about Doge has anybody actually invited him okay we have not seen any of that during the oversight subcommittee's hearing on February 11th Democrats invited nah Olen as a witness you had an opportunity you chose nah Olsen as a witness and you asked her several questions about Doge having access to taxpayer information Republicans invited Christine coach
▶ 1:43:48a managing director for financial management Insurance team at gao's office she was there specifically for the purpose of answering questions related to access to treasury's payment systems and when I asked her directly has any proof been shown about these threats you know what she said none no and yet we continue to hear all of these unsubstantiated charges being thrown out even though my colleagues know they're not correct they're complete lies Democrats
▶ 1:44:18are always able to invite whoever they want for a witness hearing they just haven't done it and Democrats have expressed outrage over the access to taxpayer information that Doge employees have first off a few weeks ago the treasury Department in the White House signed a memorandum of understanding that prohibits Doge from accessing personal taxpayer data they know this and yet we've spent over an hour and 45 minutes listening to charges that they know again or lies
▶ 1:44:48second the treasury Inspector General for tax admin Administration has released data on just how many individuals have already had access to sensitive information within the IRS as of July 2023 over 91,000 business entitlement access request system users 91,000 including 5,000 contractors had access to at least one sensitive IRS system where's the outrage why are we just now hearing about this
▶ 1:45:18all these unelected bureaucrats that have access to sensitive information including 5,000 contractors you're saying shouldn't and yet because Elon Musk has unmasked all of this waste Fraud and Abuse now you're bringing it up even worse tigta found that over a dozen contractors with unfavorable background investigations retained their access to at least one sensitive IRS system because the IRS did not take action to suspend or disable the
▶ 1:45:48contractors from the IRS system as required where was the out age then so if Democrats were serious about protecting taxpayer information they would have raised concerns about this report in articles that propublica and the New York Times published using illegally obtained taxpayer information to publish stories attacking president Trump and other Americans who had their data stolen instead of raising concerns then Democrats chose to weaponize the disclosure of taxpayer information including
▶ 1:46:18president Trump's to attack him and other Americans for political gain so stop with a gaslighting and protecting the waste Fraud and Abuse that is being uncovered and stand up for your constituents and protect their financial Futures without that I yield miss plaset Mr chairman can I ask a point of parliamentary inquiry or Mr yes um you w to point of parliamentary inquiry then I'll do the strike of last word okay no parliamentary
▶ 1:46:49inquiry is there a um mechanism where the the committee could uh compel Mr mus to come and testify uh before the committee because we are happy I think Democrats would be happy to support that motion or that mechanism if the um if the majority is willing to uh oblig oblig us but we are happy to do it we'll take it under advisement you recognized to strike the last word all right Mr chairman um
▶ 1:47:20I move moved to strike the last word so uh Ways and Means Democrats are demanding answers and fighting to protect uh taxpayers uh privacy and access to their social security benefits ilam mus Doge has pushed for access to sensitive systems that hold private data on millions of Americans these include the essential system the government uses to pay its bills database that stores tax return and Social Security data used to set and pay social security benefits these databases
▶ 1:47:50include highly sensitive information incl including taxpayers Social Security numbers addresses income information debts and property records Republicans are letting an unelected billionaire uh ransack our government it's not just dangerous it's a potentially illegal we need to know what information mus has access and what Doge has done with people's personal information especially if mus Tex Bros have stolen information from for unauthorized purposes president Trump has made
▶ 1:48:20it clear there will be no guard rails or oversight on Elon Musk and his department and agency heads are being forced to get in line that's why we have inspector generals to prevent fraud but Trump has fired them all if the Trump Administration won't hold musk accountable Congress musk must musk must um Congress has the power to conduct oversight on the executive branch and it is our duty to protect taxpayer and Social Security information
▶ 1:48:50that is what we're Democrats are trying to do today we have two resolutions of inquiry before the committee and all they do is demand information regarding Doge's intrusions at treasury IRS and the Social Security Administration we're asking whether musk and his team access protected information like Social Security numbers and benefit information addresses tax debts wage records and Bank information we need to find out what's going on um but we can only do this if the if our Republican colleagues
▶ 1:49:21join us and that's what we're asking them to do to join us Republicans either in my opinion either don't want to know what's going on don't care what's going on or are too scared of musk to do anything about it and and trust me I get it musk has a half a trillion dollar baseball bat that he's willing to use electorally to make sure that any of you who step out of line he puts you back in your place quickly so I get it I get why you're scared
▶ 1:49:51I get why you're not protecting the tax information and Social Security information of of millions of Americans I get it but we need you to have courage we need you to step up we need you to actually protect your constituents because what's going to happen is when Elon mus does all the damage and he's gone you will be holding the bag and then there'll be no one there to protect you so don't let him bully you guys into like uh not doing your jobs we
▶ 1:50:21need you to do your jobs and listen I get it it's it's basic math you have more votes than us you can vote anything down that you want but we need you all to step up and protect the American taxpayer with that I yield back Mr swazi thank you Mr chairman uh there's a lot of back and forth here about a lot of different things it's hard to figure out what to focus on I think we all
▶ 1:50:51want to try and get rid of waste Fraud and Abuse in government it's a major problem uh it's going to require us to work together a less figer pointing it'd be great if we could get Mr musk to come in here and outline different ideas he has for cuts and then we could vote on it through What's called the recision process that would be a great thing if we could Mr chairman I know you're going to take it under advisement but it would be great if we could get Mr mus just come here and sit here and and lay out the different cuts that he thinks that should be made to the federal government
▶ 1:51:21I think you know there's a lot back and forth here Mr smucker was talking earlier about the deficits I mean we just voted yesterday you guys voted yes we voted no on a budget with 6.75 million billion dollars trillion dollars in expenses and only 4.9 trillion in revenues you voted yesterday for a massive deficit increasing budget in addition the big beautiful bill that everybody's talking about is going to increase the federal deficit by even more $3 trillion
▶ 1:51:52because there's only there's there's 4.2 trillion in tax cuts but there's only about 1.2 trillion proposed in expense cuts and those one and a half trillion in expense Cuts can't be made unless you cut Medicaid and you said you don't want to cut Medicaid so that's an additional even under those Rosy scenarios an additional $3 trillion in deficits so I don't know what you guys are talking about you want to cut things but you won't give us the specifics as to what's being done Mr musk is operating Miss vany talked about
▶ 1:52:22the witnesses that were here the other day I asked each of the witnesses specifically do you know what Mr musk is doing do you know if the I think you said 100 people are working for him Lloyd 100 people are working for musk I think you said but I mean did they get background checks do we know that do you know Mr I'll yield to Mr smucker do you know if they got background checks no you don't know nobody knows we don't know if they got background checks we don't know what kind of security clearances they have we don't know what their backgrounds are I mean
▶ 1:52:52these are simple basic questions in running a multi-trillion dollar organization are the people that you have and and you know we people we hear different names about them but they're young people that are Gamers and hackers and computer experts we don't know what their backgrounds are we don't know if they got proper security clearances we don't know if they have background checks so we got a big problem in the federal government we've
▶ 1:53:23got way more in expenses than we have in revenues it causes deficits our deficits are the highest percentage of our GDP than it's been in decades The Proposal the CR that was passed yesterday increases the deficit the big beautiful bill that this group is proposing will dramatically increase the deficit so you say we have to find expenses to cut we need to go after waste for abuse yes yes
▶ 1:53:53let's do that but we don't know what the expenses are that they're proposing they're supposed to come before the Congress and propose specific Cuts so that we can adjudge whether that makes sense I don't think anybody here supports the idea when they cut the people that oversaw the nuclear stockpile nobody thought it was a good idea nobody thought it was a good idea when they cut the people that oversee the Aven flu nobody thought it was a good idea when they cut the people that oversee
▶ 1:54:23ael's outbreak nobody thought those were good ideas I don't think anybody here is going to think it's a good idea when they're cutting thousands and thousands and thousands of employees at Social Security so that when people start calling up Social Security and they can't get their calls answered and then you guys are going to say look at that I told you it was broken but you want to cut 10,000 employees out of the 54,000 that are there and then there's going to be an argument like there's been in the past to privatize Social Security so let's just work together
▶ 1:54:54let's say we all want to try and balance the budget we all want to get rid of waste Fraud and Abuse to do that we have a process and procedure in place for the federal government you can't do it through impoundment that's been ruled by the courts and there's laws specifically passed by Congress that you can't do it that way you have to go through the recision process so to come and make a proposal I want to cut this I want to cut that I want to cut this I want to cut that this doesn't make sense that doesn't make make sense and then we decide
▶ 1:55:24yes or no based upon those individual things it's a process that you're supposed to go through it's not so supposed to be done in the dark by some 20-year-old kids that we don't know if they got background checks or not so let's all work together and try and accomplish our common goals of trying to make our country a better place thank you I yield back Mr Neil thank you uh I mov to strike the last word Mr chairman I want to recognize Miss Chu first of all for a unanimous consent request yes I have a unanimous consent requ reest uh Miss vany said
▶ 1:55:54that we hadn't asked Mr musk to appear before the committee and I have here a letter of February 6 2025 over a month ago signed by Congress member Gwen Moore and myself asking secretary bassent and the head of Doge Mr Elon mus to appear before the committee without objection and I you'll the balance of my time to Mr doit thank you very much uh today's resolution
▶ 1:56:24and our consideration is not the first time we've sought this information on February 5th every Democrat on this committee wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury Mr bassent and the acting commissioner Mr O Donnell at the Internal Revenue Service and asked for the same information we are seeking today very same facts that we sought from them uh over a month and a half ago uh Mr chairman I would ask you name's consent to put these letters letters into the record without objection
▶ 1:56:54uh and as Miss Chu just pointed out the next day February the 6 after a meeting with speaker Johnson they affirmed in their letter Miss Chu and Miss Moore members of this committee that they were looking forward to having Mr musk here and others from Doge because we had an oversight committee set for a meeting uh to explore these matters we promised that that uh witness would appear and so who came several witnesses
▶ 1:57:25who when question indicated they didn't have any facts they could say that Doge had done nothing because they knew nothing and so we here we are six weeks later uh this resolution was originally presented to the committee on uh February the 12th our third attempt to get this information and yet nothing has been forthcoming and this morning we hear I must say the very laughable suggestion that
▶ 1:57:55the reason Mr musk is not here is because Democrats didn't ask him that just doesn't meet a test of the least bit of credibility it is as incredible as some of the things that President Trump has been telling us like his false claims really his lie that people uh who were of advanced years 125 150 350 years were getting social security all done to discredit Social Security
▶ 1:58:26what is at stake with our privacy well uh Mr Schneider pointed out that one of the issues here is the danger of identity theft a serious danger that many Americans have experienced the horror of having their identity stolen and finding out they have to undo everything that affects their life uh because this has happened and here we have a group of Musketeers who couldn't even protect their own website from being hacked
▶ 1:58:56and yet they may have access to extensive private information second concern I've raised is about tax payments that people in my district and across the country are submitting a far fewer tax returns than they did last year this time because there many of them are concerned that their data will be exposed and privacy overall there was a time that the Republican party cared about the privacy of individual Americans thought
▶ 1:59:27that government overreach was a problem opposed to National identification cards and other ways that might be intrusions on Americans well let me tell you what data the musk and the Musketeers were accessing information about every single wage earner in this country and their employer wages employer tax identification numbers Social Security numbers verified uh dates of unemployment insurance Social Security records
▶ 1:59:57and what they have told us this morning other than these laughable suggestions is that the only way that they as Republicans in this new Administration can fight waste Fraud and Abuse is to expose the information the private information of American citizens across this country the only way they can can fight waste Fraud and Abuse is to invade individual privacy and to give it to people like the 25-year-old self-described racist who Express
▶ 2:00:28particular disdain for South Asians who are great members of our country to give it to that kind of person to do with what they may that is wrong and this resolution of inquiry does not slow the effort of fighting waste Fraud and Abuse it does advance the effort of protecting the privacy of every single American and I urge its adoption thank you are there additional members wish to strike the last word seen none are there any amendments to
▶ 2:00:58resolution seen none I will now recognize Mr Buchanan for the purpose of offering a motion Mr chairman I move the committee report H res 127 adversely the House of Representatives the question is on the motion to report hres 127 adversely to the house of of Representatives the clerk will call the role Mr banan yes Mr banan yes
▶ 2:01:29Mr Smith of Nebraska yes Mr Smith of Nebraska yes Mr Kelly Mr Kelly yes Mr schwier yes Mr schwier yes Mr L Hood Mr Arrington Mr Estus Mr Estus yes Mr smucker Mr smucker yes Mr Hearn
▶ 2:01:59yes Mr Hearn yes Mrs Miller Mrs Miller yes Dr Murphy Dr Murphy yes Mr kustoff Mr kustoff yes Mr Fitzpatrick yes Mr Fitzpatrick yes Mr stuie Mr stuie yes Miss Miss Tenny
▶ 2:02:30yes Mrs fishbach yes M fishbach yes Mr Moore Mr Moore yes Miss vany Miss vany yes Mr finstra Mr finstra yes Miss malot Takis Miss malot Takis yes Mr kriy Mr carry yes Mr yakum yes Mr yakum yes Mr Miller Mr Miller yes Mr
▶ 2:03:01Bean Mr Bean yes Mr Moran Mr Moran yes Mr Neil Mr Neil no Mr doet Mr doet no Mr Thompson Mr Thompson no Mr lson Mr Larsson no Mr Davis Mr D Davis no Miss Sanchez Miss Sanchez no Miss Su Miss do Ben
▶ 2:03:31Miss do Ben no Miss Chu Miss Chu no Miss Moore Miss Moore no Mr Bole Mr Byer Mr Byer no Mr Evans Mr Evans no Mr Schneider Mr Schneider no Mr Panetta Mr Panetta no Mr Gomez Mr Gomez no Mr Horford
▶ 2:04:02Mr Horford no Miss plaset Miss no Mr swazi Mr swazi no Mr L Hood Mr Le Hood yes Mr Arrington how is Miss Su recorded Miss is not recorded
▶ 2:04:33Miss no Mr Bole chairman Smith yes chairman Smith
▶ 2:05:14clerk will report the vote the yeses are 25 the NOS are 18 there being 25 yeses and 18 knows the motion is agreed to and hres 127 is ordered unfavorably reported to the house without objection members have two additional days to file with the committee clerk supplemental additional dissenting or minority views last November the American people overwhelmingly rejected the Biden administration's efforts to put Washington
▶ 2:05:44and its bureaucrats ahead of everyday Americans from cancelling appointments for more than S 7500 Americans to give Social Security Administration Employees an afternoon off to signing a midnight agreement to lock in Tork with ssa's largest Union Biden's Social Security commissioner did everything he could to boost bureaucrats at the expense of the American people all in the
▶ 2:06:14midst of a customer service crisis that saw the highest the highest initial disability backlog and some of the highest customer service wait times in the ssa's almost 90e history that was before Doge this was the Biden Administration in contrast president Trump promised to increase the efficiency and accountability of Washington's entrenched bureaucracy the
▶ 2:06:44president made no secret about how he was going to accomplish that by tasking the department of government efficiency to aggressively seek out in inefficiencies in agencies and places where Services could be better streamline for the American public in order to get a faster more responsive government for their needs it is a fact that waste and fraud exist at the SSA and in the end that
▶ 2:07:14hurts the Americans seeking help from that agency in August of 2024 the ssa's office of the Inspector General found 72 billion in improper payments by the agency between 2015 and 2022 president Trump knows that protecting Social Security includes rooting out fraud and waste to ensure that the right
▶ 2:07:45benefit is paid to the right person at the right time this should be something everyone supports however some Democrats would prefer to obstruct these efforts to score political points fortunately not only has the SSA been transparent with both Congress and the public with its Service delivery data and the changes being made to shift the SSA from
▶ 2:08:15an agency that uses decades old business practices to one that can provide modern quality service to the public but one of the first public statements of President Trump's new acting commissioner was to confirm that Doge Personnel cannot cannot make changes to agency systems to commit to abide by court rulings related to Do's
▶ 2:08:45access and to refer Doge Personnel for prosecution if they violate the law the same laws that protect the American people's data from misuse by the ssa's tens of thousands of other employees seniors are already seeing the benefit of doing things differently beneficiaries affected by weap and go are getting the back payments mandated by the Social Security Fairness Act faster
▶ 2:09:16than expected originally the Social Security Administration estimated it would take a thousand a thousand work hours to send out back payments and a letter to Social Security chairman Ron Estus and myself wrote to SSA and I quote we estimate that it will take about a thousand work hours to process the actions required under the new law for the approximate
▶ 2:09:463.2 million affected beneficiaries our initi analysis indicates that much of the work will need to be done manually on a Case by basis since that letter from SSA was sent in January the Trump administration's Embrace of Automation and technology has made a night and day difference for those affected seniors under President Trump the SSA
▶ 2:10:17has already sent more than 71% of all back payments to the 3.2 million affected benificiaries this is how the agency should work not wait a thousand manh hours to do 3.2 million cases Hand by hand but automation to deliver for the American people and president Trump in fact has delivered that in s
▶ 2:10:48weeks 7 weeks the agency quick Ally implements the laws to get benefits in the hands of Americans as soon as possible we shouldn't be holding out while Democrats may want to use scare mongering to score political points the facts are not on their side they simply aren't president Trump did not touch Social Security benefits during his first term
▶ 2:11:18he campaigned on protecting and preserving his social security benefits in his second in his first reelect and his second reelect in all those campaigns he has been consistent and for any member of this body to say otherwise is just saying unfactual representation of President Trump I now recognize the ranking member from Massachusetts Mr Neil for his opening thanks Mr
▶ 2:11:48chairman just before I yield my time can we all agree that there is nobody 300 years old receiving a social security check can we also agree that 99.2% of Social Security recipients receive their checks on time and 72 million Americans receive Social Security and we're complaining about a thousand hours of man and woman power members of Congress spent a lot of their time making sure those checks are time the head of Doge has said that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and the president has not
▶ 2:12:18corrected them I you the balance of my time to Mr Larsson for his great work on Social Security thank you Mr Neil and uh thank you um Mr chairman uh as I said earlier uh it's a it's a sad day uh for America when the Comm Committee of cognizance has to have this issue of inquiry so that we can
▶ 2:12:48actually produce before the committee and instead of an empty seat and empty chairs the person who president Trump designated to find $2 trillion worth of cuts a person who has publicly said that he knows where to find those they're in what he calls entitlements what everybody on this committee knows with regard to Social Security is an earned benefit that
▶ 2:13:19they pay and so so the people in your districts are wondering whether or because the chairman just said that there's no way that President Trump is going to touch Social Security even though last weekend he called it a scam and that Elon Musk was on television just last night again saying that yes their goal is to privatize
▶ 2:13:50Social given these statements I don't understand why there's a problem with bringing forth Mr musk to testify before this committee and if he's got all the if all these ideas of uh fraud abuse and waste are are true then yes Mr chairman we should join
▶ 2:14:20with you to make sure that that's case but even the acting person handpicked by Trump has said well what they said about people checks older than 115 years old is false that's Trump appointment saying that and so we continue to get the big lie including this weekend again where they said oh yes
▶ 2:14:50and the democ ratic plan is to bring illegal immigrants into the country by offering to pay them Security there's not a thread of Truth to any of that and yet this unaccountable person not a federal employee not a volunteer but a special person who's not have to gone through Senate approval and who this committee is
▶ 2:15:20now saying yes we agree with the president he should not be accountable he should be able to have free reign and do whatever he wants we will willingly follow him and do whatever he says because he's the wealthiest man in the world and surely he must know how to save us from ourselves this program of social
▶ 2:15:50security that oh just happens to be the number one anti-poverty program for the elderly and for the children of this country yep I agree Mr musk and Mr Trump aren't going to lose a moment sleep thinking about the privatization and what it means to those individuals and yes you can say that not going to do
▶ 2:16:20this but yet there's no commissioner here no person under oath raising their hand and saying yes no we have no intention of privatizing Social Security he's made it clear time and time again and if not well by all means we'll be happy to have him here we've sent letters chairman estd knows three weeks ago I sent a letter asking for him to come and
▶ 2:16:51immediately before the subcommittee and we'll continue to do that because we want to hear as does the American public truth thank you the committee will now proceed to consideration of hres 195 without objection the measure will be considered as read and open for Amendment at any point does anyone wish to strike the last word Mr Buchanan is recognized Mr L Mr
▶ 2:17:22Larsson you've been maybe a little longer than I have but the two of us came in 2006 when they started payo I ran on a balanced budget amendment or trying to get there we're 8 trillion in debt here's what's sad and here's where we go broke so if we don't deal with it it was 8 trillion when we came in today 37 trillion it's not your fault it's not our fault it's both parties I don't have any confidence confidence that we
▶ 2:17:52can deal with this I I I I I sadly say that I'm just telling you from my standpoint because you would have dealt with it a long time ago I've had expert economists tell me it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when so do we want to go down this false Road where we've we haven't been able to perform on a bipartisan basis or get anything done or do we want to try to look at other options and I feel like at least this is we got a shot because I can just tell you when you're paying a trillion dollars interest well the gentlemen
▶ 2:18:22trillion dollar in interest just give me a couple minutes when you're paying a trillion dollars in interest right off the top it's going to end badly and I I just feel I'm an optimist anybody that knows me I am but I am very very concerned about the debt and the deficit and it's both parties I have no confidence in this process what we've been doing for all these years because I've I've never seen anybody talk about dealing with the reality of a budget I dealt with balance sheets and income statements at some point you go
▶ 2:18:52bankrupt and that's my point we're doing that right now uh regardless what happens here today regardless what road going if we don't make material changes Social Security is at risk I got the fifth oldest District in the country putting them all at risk Medicare Medicaid is at risk everything's at risk we've got to fix this thing we got to fix it together because I can just tell you my it's it's hard to imagine my 10th term here I get sick of hearing it everybody talks a good game but we don't do
▶ 2:19:22anything but for the sake of the American people and I feel your passion I know you're talked about social security I you know was on the committee but we've got to do whatever we can to fix what we're doing because you know we you got either go down the road we've been going down which I have no confidence or you look at another road and I think this this other Road gives us at least a shot we don't have a shot right now this will give us a shot because we don't have the courage to come together and I'll yield them I thank the gentleman it was always a
▶ 2:19:52gentleman but what we need and for more than 50 years you're right both parties share responsibility in this but here's what we need a vote how about a vote we have a plan where's yours and how can you get to a compromise if there's a plan and no plan how about a vote then how about the American people get
▶ 2:20:22to see where you stand on the issue and as has been articulated by several on the other side we just simply don't believe that this program can last or make it I totally believe that this is America's number one in fact we borrow yeah give me a little from Social Security yes your time I'm sorry yeah let me just say uh I would wish that we could come together and deal with this the biggest problem we've
▶ 2:20:53got we're financially going down the drain I don't care who you talk to or what you talk to I hate to say that because it's the best country on the planet but we've got to fix our financial house we got to fix it together because if we don't we're going to end up in a very very bad situation someone says when that might be who knows but it's coming it's coming quickly you can't pay a trillion dollars off the top without impacting everybody and soal security that's not the employees
▶ 2:21:23it's their money plus all the employers matched them half so they you know this this is their money it's at risk we don't it's there's no trust fund for it they took all the monies out in the 60s in terms of social security so they're counting on the viability of America that's not true okay well that's kind of what I understood but well that's not true at all in fact the federal government borrows from Social Security I'm going to yield back so yeah I'll reclaim my time thank you yield Mr Neil thanks chairman move to strike
▶ 2:21:53the last word so I heard the gentleman's argument and I think it's very sincere but what's missing is in the next few weeks we will be asked to add $4 trillion to the debt because of tax cuts right that's the great irony of or inconsistency of this argument so let me give you a name here Bill Clinton balance the budget four times and then tax cuts in 2011 and 203
▶ 2:22:24we're being asked for big tax cuts again here in the next few weeks but under the guys that we're going to balance the budget with more tax cuts the numbers don't work and incidentally for the record Social Security right now is running a surplus of $2.7 trillion that's a fact and I call attention to that because happy to have the discussion about balancing the budget some of us actually participated cast a really tough votes for spending cuts and tax increases
▶ 2:22:54twice we're senior Clinton twice cuts and tax increases to balance the budget and it worked the answer from the other side is if we just have more tax cuts just add more to the debt somehow the debt shrinks I mean the consistency of the argument here is that more tax cuts will balance the budget and then we'll camouflage it by borrowing
▶ 2:23:24$4 trillion doll that we will be asked to take up here as we lift the debt ceiling once again I'm all in for a sincere conversation of how to how to get there if the other side is sincere about it let's engage the conversation thank you Mr chairman Mr doet thank you Mr chairman all Americans know that President Trump has pledged to protect Social Security just as he has pledged tariffs and they've been on
▶ 2:23:54one day and off the next just as he has gone back and forth on his position on reproductive freedom for women in this country and so why do I question the commitment to Social Security because I think it's more important to look not at a president who is well known as a man of his last word uh by what he says but by what he does and what he has done is to appoint a man
▶ 2:24:24who has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme who this week has attacked the programs that Americans pay into in every paycheck Medicare and Social Security as being entitlements yes you should be entitled to what you pay into over your work life for your Medicare and your Social Security but he says it's a Ponzi scheme and that entitlements are the place to cut so that's the first place the person he chose to raid Social
▶ 2:24:55Security does not believe in Social Security number two is that we have seen this President come not unlike the chairman of the committee this morning but provoking much more extended laughter from Republicans in his recent speech to Congress and what was this laughter about all the fraud at Social Security can you imagine they have on their payout out someone who has 350 years old older than our
▶ 2:25:25Republic can you believe this no you can't believe it because it's a lie because social security has in had in place for some time a requirement that it doesn't pay out anything to people 115 and though there have been some mistakes made some underpayments some overpayments it has as Mr Neil pointed out an incredible accuracy rate of for less of 1% of payments that have been found to be improper it doesn't mean we shouldn't
▶ 2:25:56seek more accuracy and protect the system but social security has Mar worked remarkably well in the past and that takes me to the third thing that President Trump has done that is inconsistent with his claim that he will protect Social Security and won't switch his word around as he has done on one public issue after another and that is the deter termined effort of this Administration to wreck the Social Security Administration those checks
▶ 2:26:26don't come down as Mana from Heaven they come down because there is a dedicated Workforce that is ensuring that Social Security continues to pay out month after month and so how have Mr Trump and Mr mus decided to handle that dedicated Workforce they are cutting it by 7,000 people and among those 7,000 people are 50 that are particularly important the uh office of transformation as they have called it
▶ 2:26:56is the customer service office at the Social Security Administration and the Trump Administration went in and fired the director of the office of transformation it fire he fired all 50 employees of that office of transformation so guess what when the shortage of employees to get the checks out dependably occurs people are going to say well social security is just not like it used to be it can't deliver it's not working it's like the post office which they want to privatize
▶ 2:27:27it's not getting our our checks we can't count on it anymore and it's that ensuring that the Social Security Administration fails to deliver that is at the core of the Republican plan to undermine Social Security social security has been for forced already by Republican Administration to serve Millions more people people with fewer staff in 2010 they had 67,000 workers ensuring timely and accurate
▶ 2:27:57payments to 60 million Americans today they have 10,000 fewer and when I say today that's before the Trump Cuts serving 13 million more people you cannot assure that Social Security provides the wonderful coverage that it has for so many years uh without an adequate Workforce I'm hearing from good constituents that say this is an emergency I'm hearing Republicans like Tom Ron Johnson the senator from Wisconsin saying he wants to sunset
▶ 2:28:28alog together Senator Mike Lee who says he wants to phase out Social Security to pull it out by the roots and get rid of it my constituents believe Social Security is one of the best systems government ever put in place and we are opposed to the Trump people undermining it as they are doing and want to get the facts here which is all this resolution asked for I yield back gentleman yields back and I recognize Mr Estus to strike the last word well thank
▶ 2:28:58you Mr chairman um I move to Strike last word you know as as the new chair of the Social Security subcommittee uh I feel a sense of responsibility to make sure we address this this program that's so beneficial for so many people in the country I mean Federal this is a federal program that's supports people of all ages uh particularly our seniors and the Social Security administration's first responsibility is to provide correct benefit
▶ 2:29:29payments to the correct people in a timely basis people should be enrolled correctly and timely that's not happening today over the last two years my office has received increasing number of complaints and I I would imagine that most of the members on this Das are also receiving more complaints that their constituents aren't being served in a timely man efficient manner the complaints range from Social Security they can't get enrolled they can't get through on the phone system uh they
▶ 2:29:59they can't get appointments set up whe either through the phone system or through technology they can't get into an office uh this is one of those simple blocking and tackling things we want to make sure that we have good customer service that's not talking anything about some of the problems that have been discovered with with the processing itself in fact the Social Security Administration Inspector General office has found that $72 billion in improper payments between 2015 and 2022 and the previous
▶ 2:30:29administration the uh administrator said well we'll we'll just start forgiving those and we'll start stop calculating uh whether they are bad payments uh just so that we don't we don't have such a bad record I want to go on the record that President Trump has repeatedly stated that he will fight for Social Security that President Trump's repeatedly stated he will protect Social Security president Trump's repeatedly stated that he will not cut Social Security and House Republicans stand with President Trump to make sure that we preserve and protect and
▶ 2:31:00strengthen Social Security benefits for the seniors count on I talk mostly in my in my remarks about how do we make sure that the programs processed correctly the other issue that we need to address is the fact that Social Security is running a deficit they've been running a deficit each year year 2010 we have to at some point in time be the adults in the room and address the fact that the trust fund is being depleted that's because
▶ 2:31:30there are more retirees than workers today than ever before in history so as if we really want to solve this problem let's work together we need to address the problems with customer service today and the sooner we take up and address our responsibility to to resolve the deficit that exists in the program this program is not going to be able to provide the service that it was created for for the American people with that I back gentleman Neil's
▶ 2:32:00back I now recognize Mr Thompson to Strike last word thank you Mr chairman you know 89 years ago President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law creating the single most impactful anti-poverty program in our n in our nation's history for 89 years Social Security has ensured our seniors can retire with dignity and those who are disabled can have the support that that they need yet this Administration has put Social Security
▶ 2:32:31on The Chopping Block they want to privatize Social Security Elon Musk has called it the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time and has suggested it will be the primary target of his cutting efforts my colleague mentioned that their the Republicans sole purpose sole F focus is to improve customer services well that's interesting because these cuts that have already coming out of the uh of the administration uh are already
▶ 2:33:01in the works Doge announcing the closure of 47 field offices and six Regional Offices how does that improve customer service career professional staff and former administrators of Social Security have warned that for the first time in 80 years benefits may be disrupted Mr chairman my phones have been ringing off the hook from calls from constituents frightened that they won't receive their benefits in my district
▶ 2:33:32153,000 people receive Social Security over 120,000 retirees over 6,000 children 8,000 widows and 12 thou over 12,000 disabled workers and this amounts to 286 million every month coming into my district from Social Security checks and that multiplies us across our community improving uh the economic situation
▶ 2:34:03at at home and that's the same for everybody on this dis that the multiplier effect of these Social Security checks coming into your community can make or break your local economy I understand why my Republican colleagues have cancelled their town halls and refused ref to answer questions refuse to bring Witnesses in they know that what they're doing is wildly unpopular since 87% of Americans say supporting Social Security should be a top priority for congress
▶ 2:34:33the American public deserves to know they're demanding to know what this Administration plans to do with Social Security if this Administration claims to be the most transparent in history why are our Republican colleagues not not interested in voting to ensure that that transport that that transparency is in effect with this resolution um Mr chairman this is the most significant con uh Committee in Congress please exercise The
▶ 2:35:04Authority you have to ensure that Americans know what the future of their social security holds and I yield the remainder of my time to lson just briefly because I wanted to uh uh I have great admiration for the chairman of the uh Social Security uh subcommittee and uh his demeanor and how he always conducts himself and we did send a letter you know asking for Elon Musk to be
▶ 2:35:34here and I know the gentleman sincere when he says we we've got to work together to solve this we do so we have a plan let's put it out there and have have a vote if you've got a plan by all means put it out there it seems like the person who has a plan is Elon Musk and that's why we've asked that he
▶ 2:36:04come before here to please explain to us what his plan is I don't see where that is such an astounding thing to ask for in a democracy and in a Democratic Republic we have a plan you disagree with it that's fine that's what a democracy is all about are there improvements that could be made of course there always are are there compromises that could be
▶ 2:36:34made certainly but to do nothing and then to Stonewall and say that Elon Musk doesn't have to come before us let's have Martin Al in the commissioner so we can actually look at what other Federal agency do you know that operates the largest insurance program for under with one under 1% administrative cost and
▶ 2:37:04laying off people that reach out to people especially in rural areas and shutting those down so they can't can't get the service they need and then calling Social Security incompetent gentleman's time has expired Mr Davis is now recognized Strike last word thank you Mr chairman you know as I listened to this discussion
▶ 2:37:35and I've listened all morning I'm reminded that my father used to tell me that what you do is far more telling than what you say and so we here that no we're not going to affect social security it's hard to make me believe that if you are closing offices if you are firing staff
▶ 2:38:05there's nothing more important in my congressional district than Social Security especially to the more than 150,000 seniors whose only source of income is social security the individuals with disabilities whose only source of income is Social Security and
▶ 2:38:36yet there seem to be this notion that we can fix by laying people off cutting staff clothes in offices it's just hard for me to reconcile that and understand it Social Security is the lifeline for all of these individuals and it's
▶ 2:39:06the only protection that they have from absolute poverty the notion of privatizing privatization I would much rather rely upon a proven system than some untried never put together system
▶ 2:39:36that would simply allow hedge funds private investors and those who operate big businesses to make more money at the expense of the people that the services are to be provided for and it's for that reason that I think any changes any thoughts any ideas any
▶ 2:40:06practices must be transparent I agree with those who say we can fix of course we can of course we can all that we have have to do is fix with the intent of providing the best possible service to the residents and the people I also believe that if there is righteousness in the heart there's also Beauty in the
▶ 2:40:37character which means that if the intent is righteous then we'll have a system that will work for the benefit of the people so I think thank you Mr chairman and yield back bounce of the Time gentleman yields back the balance of his time I now recognize Miss Sanchez for to strike the last word five minutes thank you Mr chairman this resolution of inquiry asks about staff reductions closures and consolidations
▶ 2:41:07of Social Security offices the implementation of the so-called Department of government efficiency has caused widespread confusion and Chaos illegal Mass firing of federal workers and cancellation of Grants have left my constituents looking for answers I expect my colleagues have experienced similar questions from their constituents if they are bothering to hear them out I would expect all of my colleagues to vote Yes on this resolution of inquiry if only to gather much needed information
▶ 2:41:38about Elon musk's actions in the Social Security Administration doa's website lists social security field office closures in carlbad California aing Texas Greenville North Carolina and Logan West Virginia if it was me representing these cities I would want more details about why my constituents were losing these valuable Services we all know that social security wait times are too long office closures will only increase them
▶ 2:42:08I've said it before and I'll say it again the richest man in the world is going after Social Security and he doesn't even understand it doesn't know how it works Elon Musk calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme and because of the cap Elon Musk paid all of his social security taxes on January 1st of this year at 12:15 a.m.
▶ 2:42:32he doesn't have to pay a dime more into Social Security after that my Republican colleagues are smart compassionate people I have a hard time believing that they are comfortable slashing the benefits that their constituents rely on and I have a harder time believing that they don't want to understand what the richest man in the world is doing with their constituents money and data this resolution simply asks the question I look forward to all my colleagues voting
▶ 2:43:02yes to find out more about what is happening in their districts and I want to just say this at the start of this markup I had one of my staff call the Social Security customer service line we've been discussing this resolution for quite some time now and and she's still on hold closing social security field offices and reducing staff is only going to increase those whole times for our most value our most vulnerable I should say all constituents are valuable
▶ 2:43:33but our most vulnerable constituents and Republicans don't seem to care but I suspect that your constituents will and with that I yield back member yields back I now recognize Miss Chu to strike the last word for 5 minutes I strongly support this resolution of inquiry and it is because my constituents are sick with worry at the risk of frauders having their social security numbers banking
▶ 2:44:03information and other personal information shared with mus cronies who've invaded the Social Administration so let's be clear president Trump and Elon Musk have launched a public campaign against Social Security Mr musk is calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and both he and president Trump are spreading widely discredited lies about the program and its
▶ 2:44:33Integrity but the facts don't add up let me read just a few of the countless news headlines debunking their false claims the Associated Press says tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks dis despite Trump and musk claims ABC news says musk misreads Social Security data millions of dead people are not getting benefits experts say CBS news says new Social Security
▶ 2:45:04Chief refutes claims of deceased people over 100 years get 100 years old getting checks The Washington Post says Elon Musk claims of Social Security fraud don't hold up and here's why and the New York Times says millions of dead people on Social Security the agency's own data says otherwise and in fact the claims by Elon Musk are based on complete misunderstanding
▶ 2:45:34of Social Security's Data Systems which often lack complete birth and death information for people born before 1920 before Social Security was established and long before electronic records were kept a 2023 Inspector General report said that almost none of these people born be before 1920 with missing information are paid benefits but my constituents are
▶ 2:46:04also worried worried because the Trump Administration is taking a wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration far from making the agency more efficient they are undermining its ability to serve the public and why are they trying to destroy the Social Security Administration it's the first step of a longstanding effort by Republicans to dismantle trust in Social Security and slash benefits the Trump Administration wants to
▶ 2:46:34close Social Security offices Across the Nation and Slash the agency's workforce by nearly one in eight employees Social Security Administration this administ ation is already at a 50-year staffing low due to years of underfunding and it's serving more beneficiaries than ever how will gutting its Workforce help it to serve the
▶ 2:47:04American people well the answer is that it doesn't and in fact it's very likely a move to undermine confidence so that the Trump Administration can privatize it and with that I yield back member yields back I now recognize Miss Moore for 5 minutes to strike the last word thank you so very very much uh Mr chairman and and ranking member and
▶ 2:47:35members I am reminded of um what Maya Angelo said when she said she said when someone shows you who they are believe them the first time and then of course Rachel mattow who is a news commentator on MSNBC uh often says you need to watch what people do and not what they say and I think that that's those are very helpful admonitions in view
▶ 2:48:06of this discussion here today uh we have our um Republican colleagues swearing that Donald Trump will not uh do anything to social sec and you know from your lips to God's ears let's hope you know I'm on your side I'm hoping that you're right uh but we have known that Republicans have long wanted to destroy Social Security and really privatize it
▶ 2:48:36uh as a matter of fact uh former chair of this committee uh my good friend Paul Ryan from Wisconsin uh openly tried to privatize Social Security my own Senator Johnson was the first person I ever heard call it a Ponzi scheme long before uh before uh Elon Musk was on the scene and Mick mainy um during the Trump one Administration who was a former Chief of
▶ 2:49:06Staff testified before the joint economic committee that yes we need to go after Social Security because Just Like Jesse James robbed banks it's cuz that that's where the money is and so I am you know I'm not convinced of that that they're not going to do it musk has just basically said we need to go after entitlement spending which uh he designates as Social Security and Medicare so I think that
▶ 2:49:36it's important for the our Republican friends not to be willfully ignorant to be useful idiots about this um you know and so so that's what they say what but what are they doing let's look at that um this uh this CR that we passed just yesterday in order to Flat fund the operations of the Social Security Administration we would have had to
▶ 2:50:07have added $600 million instead of adding the $600 just to Flat fund the agency they cut it by an additional 100 million that's 7 $700 million watch what they do you know you're trying to save Social Security but you want to destroy customer service we heard um Mr Estes the new chairman of the subcommittee talk about how awful the customer service is well yah but that is
▶ 2:50:37part of the scheme to undermine Social Security to the point um that people lose faith in it and as a matter of fact Martin o Mali sent me this text he says is they just want to wreck it so they can rob it and now with this CR and the mass firings taking place of Social Security as we speak they are destroying customer service for the American people driving this agency to collapse and putting at grave and serious risk to monthly benefits of 72
▶ 2:51:07million Americans that's the former Commissioner of Social Security uh Martin om Ali and then the president Trump tells us that he's going to what taxes on Social Security well that really sounds great send people I heard $5,000 checks that really sounds great and that of course would help people making 20 $330,000 immediately but in the long run they would be hurt the most and wealthy people
▶ 2:51:37would be helped the most but in the meantime it would cost the trust fund $1.5 trillion do to do that you know watch what they do not what they say that would undermine Social Security uh tremendously the Social Security payment accuracy is about 99.8 uh .8% so I don't know how much waste Fraud and Abuse can be found
▶ 2:52:07in it um this really um the last point that I want to make is that Elon Musk is a Teck Tycoon and I wonder what the value of this data is to him it's immeasurable so this is a serious conflict of interest for this man to have social security data when he is a tech Tycoon M's time is expired thank you so much Mr chairman for your Indulgence
▶ 2:52:37and I yield back I recognize Mr Bole to strike the last word for five minutes thank you Mr chairman strike the word Mr chairman 70 million Americans get Social Security it is the most successful anti-poverty program in American history it is sometimes called an entitlement I I prefer to call it an earned benefit millions of Americans throughout their working careers paid into
▶ 2:53:08Social Security with paycheck it truly is an earned benefit now there are some who have uh expressed falsely the notion that somehow Social Security contributes to our national debt it doesn't at all in fact right now there is a $2.7 trillion Surplus in the Social Security trust fund it has been certified both by the Congressional budget office as well as the Social Security trustees that
▶ 2:53:38there is enough money in the trust fund to fully pay out benefits 100% of benefits today through the year 2035 so for the next decade and certainly we have enough time over the next decade to make modifications that are necessary to ensure that Social Security is fully there for generations to come so no the greatest threat to Social Security is not its current financing the greatest threats to Social Security
▶ 2:54:09are Donald Trump and Elon Musk Elon Musk recently called Social Security a Ponzi scheme not the first time by the way that he has used that exact term a Ponzi scheme you know vice president Vance last fall explicitly said that Elon Musk would and I quote Target Social Security and that he has Elon Musk has previously raised the Spectre of
▶ 2:54:39privatization of Social Security this is also not the first time that we have heard of a republican effort to privatize Social Security exactly 20 years ago when George W bush won reelection right about this moment he said and I quote I have political capital and I intend to use it he wanted to spend that political capital on the privatization of Social Security fortunately that effort Was
▶ 2:55:10Defeated Elon Musk is not the first and won't be the last Republican to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme there are multiple Republican members of the US Senate serving right now who called it exactly that a Ponzi scheme one of whom went further in a legislation that every five years Social Security Medicare and Medicaid would have to be reauthorized or they would go away that is
▶ 2:55:40the ultimate goal we should be under No Illusion whatsoever that this so-called Doge effort is to identify waste or fraud Social Security is a 99.8% accuracy rate private sector would do well to meet such a high rate of 99.8% it is no wonder that Social Security is the most popular government program that we have so on behalf of
▶ 2:56:11my own father and the tens of millions of Americans who rely on Social Security who have earned earn that benefit I know that we on this side of the dis will continue to speak out and defend it without a yel back the gentleman yields back now recognize the member from Virginia Mr Brier Mr chairman thank you Mr chairman I move to strike the last word gentleman is recognized thank you Mr chairman first of all we've heard the $72
▶ 2:56:41billion number number of times uh the oig report from 2015 to 2022 that's a awful lot of money but let's point out that's less than 1% of the money paid out over that 8year period of time it's still a great deal we need to D deal with it but it's not like a um show me any organization any business operation that doesn't have 1% mistake in it and I'll I'll be astonished by the way let me also point out that during that eight-year period of time Donald Trump was President for those four years four of those eight
▶ 2:57:11years look my real deep concern is about Elon musk's attitude about his misunderstanding of and his plans for the Social Security Administration but let me just first begin with the absolute lack of transparency about Elon Musk himself and his many many complicated Financial interests I just compare it to my personal experience when I wanted to serve on the Obama transition team 2008 um I got fingerprinted for the first time they went and talked to my employees
▶ 2:57:41and my neighbors I had to file extensive background check took me Day hours and to fill out hundreds of pages when I went to Switzerland for the state department I was prohibited from any ties to the business i' spent decades building um in order to prevent any possible corruption when I came here when I own stocks I have to report them every single month any activity um we have to do this extensive Financial disclosure every May for 10 years I've bought every meal
▶ 2:58:12every cup of coffee paid every toll never allowed to promote any business because I'm not special we are not special we are Servants of the public and then you get Elon Musk who is a very special case he the greatest possibility for corruption by far in American history and don't get me started on Tesla advertisements on the White House lawn my constituents depend on Social Security not just as an earned entitlement to support them after retirement but as an agency they expect to work with when
▶ 2:58:42we need it every year I go to our social security office to visit pump them up and I'm so impressed with how hard everyone is working everyone's busy the entire time so closing offices and messing with the system that people have paid into their entire lives closing without full transparency it's just crazy I can't imagine a need to access Social Security payment information in this manner short of trying to dismantle the agency we've heard again and again that mus thinks it's a Ponzi scheme
▶ 2:59:12but look if someone's messing with my money I want full transparency what they're doing and the Trump Mass Vance Administration has the Silicon Valley perspective of move fast and break it but that doesn't work with the federal government it doesn't work with a social Administration and if the goal is to derail and dismantle the Trump Social Security Trump shouldn't hide that my Republican friends have again said today they have no intention of doing that but when musk and Trump close offices fire employees
▶ 2:59:43make it harder to get the phone answered make it longer to get an appointment when they destroy people people's confidence in the most important anti-poverty program in the history of mankind what else are we to conclude if they can make Social Security dysfunctional why not turn over the $2.7 trillion of assets to private sector where it can generate huge profits for a handful of money managers this inquiry supports bringing all those actions to light and if my Republican friends are not ashamed they
▶ 3:00:13should support this simple inquiry I yield back I'm right yield backa now recognize miss vany you five minutes to strike the last word thank you very much Mr chairman um you know when President Trump got elected he promised to change the status quo and bring accountability to DC and that starts with an in-depth review of the agencies including Social Security that pay trillions of dollars a year out Doge employees are subject to the same legal penalties and I want to make sure that we are understanding that
▶ 3:00:43because we've seen a lot of unsubstantiated charges tonight today but they are they are subject to the same legal penalties and fines for improper disclosure of sensitive information as every other um Social Security administrator employee in fact the acting Commissioner of Social Security affirm affirmatively stated that Doge Personnel cannot make changes to agency systems benefit payments or other information they only have read access Doge personnel must follow the law and if they vi vi violate
▶ 3:01:13the law they will be deferred to the Department of Justice for possible persecution the status status quo is no longer acceptable and Americans voted for Change and president Trump is delivering in fact we've heard some complaints today about about the um level of of quality of customer service I would have them know that I've got great news for my colleagues who requesting information about the service provided by Social Security's National 800 number not only does a Social Security Administration already publicly post up-to-date information on the performance of that 1800 number but including
▶ 3:01:43information asked in the ROI but that information is showing significant Improvement since the service delivery lows under the Biden Administration um I ask for unanimous consent to submit for the record a chart from the ssa's website showing that the 800 numbers average speed of an answer for this fiscal year is 21.6 minutes this is down by the way from 35.8 minutes during the Biden Administration so I would hope that all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be thanking president Trump
▶ 3:02:14but I also want to talk about some of the most egregious and easily provable lie that we've heard on this side that President Trump wants to um get rid of or or deduct from Social Security wants to reduce Social Security president Trump has promised to increase the efficiency and accountability of Washington Washington's bureaucracy it is a fact that waste Fraud and Abuse exist at the Social Security Administration fact the Social Security Administration made an estimate
▶ 3:02:45of $72 billion and improper pay payments between 2015 and 2022 it exists we know that it exists the social securities Office of the Inspector General found that President Trump has repeatedly stated that he will fight for Social Security president Trump has repeatedly stated that he will protect Social Security and president Trump has repeatedly stated that he will not cut Social Security House Republicans stand with President Trump's commitment to preserving and strengthening Social Security benefits
▶ 3:03:15for seniors that they count on but in addition to that I don't want to just talk for the president because we have all heard him say it numerous times but let the president's words speak for themselves touched other than or something we're going to find it's going to be strengthened but won't be touched Medicare Medicaid none of that stuff is going to be touched nothing Social Security will not be touched it'll only be strengthened I'm not going to touch Social Security Medicare Medicade now we're going to get fraud out of there you know look Social
▶ 3:03:45Security won't be touched other than or something so I don't know how many times the man has to say it he has repeated it publicly a number of times if you go to the white White House website they have it published a number times I keep hearing this lie over and over again they know it's wrong I would really hope that we could all work and want to have it be more effective a more efficient program and that's what we're here to do and I would hope that I can get my other colleagues on the other side of the aisle to
▶ 3:04:15agree with that and with that I yield member yields I now recognize Mr Evans for five minutes to strike the last word I moved to strike the last word thank you Mr chairman for calling this makeup to Da for us to address two important resolutions which demands transparency in the federal government I know my Republican colleagues are big fans of government transparency so I expect they will vote
▶ 3:04:46in favor of these resolution over the weekend I held the town hall town meeting thousands of constituents in my district through my town hall numerous constituents submitted questions regarding the treatment that the Trump Administration posed to Social Security many of my consents wanted to know what Congress is doing to protect the information from Trump musk and their hackers
▶ 3:05:16that that that are taking over the government the answer then is that this bill is what the government is doing by paying the resolution of inquiry Congress will be able to demand answers from the administration on how American data being being illegally retrieved from addressing the Social Security Administration and is being restricted on how service and payment to Social
▶ 3:05:46Security recipients will be impacted I think it would be a no-brainer that this committee would want more information on how our constituents are being served and how the official handling this information are being honored a vote against this resolution is a vote to protect Donald Trump and Mr musk and vote against protecting the American people Mr chairman
▶ 3:06:17there's probably no more significant issue as you heard the members talking about social security and what it means all of us stand behind it particularly on the Democratic side because for what is done it's a earn benefit it's something people need so I thank you Mr chairman and I'd like to yield pass it to Mr Thompson thank you Mr Evans for yielding I I just want to point out that uh was mentioned by one of
▶ 3:06:47our colleagues that the uh president Trump has made all these pledges and Promises to protect uh Social Security and we shouldn't be worried um but we are worried because you know his right-hand person is calling it a Ponzi scheme members Republican members of Congress have bills to do away with it and to privatize it and to let it let it phase out this is terribly concerning and I and I want to point out that all these promises that
▶ 3:07:17then candidate Trump made we're hearing about from our friends on the other side of the dis none of those uh none of those prom none of those were a promise to privatize Social Security and that's what he's talking about now it's been pointed out that he's against waste Fraud and Abuse well we're all against waste Fraud and Abuse but the fact of the matter is the Trump Administration is firing Federal prosecutors across the country
▶ 3:07:48threatening to impeach any judges that don't agree with him and it looks to me like if there's a a big void in this fraud area if if there's all this fraud that's being undercovered un under being discovered why aren't there charges being filed fraud is against the law and if someone breaks the law you file charges against them I haven't seen any fraud charges
▶ 3:08:18being brought up after all investigative uh work uh waste we we we've seen the the result of all the reported waste the waste of people 350 years old uh collecting Social Security benefits we already know that that's just a not only a false claim but it's a laughable uh claim so I'm not sure where this waste is uh if there is waste let's work together
▶ 3:08:49to do uh to do away with it and as far as abuse uh the most abuse that I've seen so far is the abuse that our constituents who rely on Social Security and Medicare and or Medicaid are are experiencing right now that's very abusive what's going on uh I yield back to balance my Time gentleman yields back now recognize Mr Schneider for five minutes to strike the last word uh thank you Mr Mr chairman I move to strike the
▶ 3:09:20word I'm proud to join my Democratic colleagues today to support hres 195 to compel the Trump Administration to provide to this body all information pertaining to Alon musk and his Department of government efficiencies attacks on the Social Security Administration I can tell you my constituents are writing calling pleading they are profoundly concerned about what the Doge or doge is doing to Social Security maybe there's a good plan but they don't know and the words
▶ 3:09:50we're hearing Alan musk calling it a Ponzi scheme give reason legitimate reason for concern the American people deserve to know what doge is doing whether it is strengthening or undermining Social Security and the safety net in this country Social Security is an earned benefit period stop after a lifetime of hard work millions of current and future retirees are counting on the so their social security benefits that
▶ 3:10:20they worked for they paid for that they have earned I didn't think that I would have to sit in this hearing room and make the case to my Republican col colleagues but we must do everything we can to protect Social Security 40 plus years ago Congress worked together to strengthen social security for the next Generations that burden is falling on us and unfortunately we are turning our back and abdicating our responsibilities responsibilities
▶ 3:10:50acquiescing to the demands of an unelected oligarch it is UN Social Security is under direct threat from Alan musk and Doge the millions of workers would F who have followed the rules for their entire careers and paid into this system deserve to trust that their hard-earned benefits will not be cut by an unelected oligarchy my Republican colleagues today will tell you that the Trump Administration will not hurt social security and benefits we even heard a recording of the president's voice and that the Democrats are needlessly
▶ 3:11:20causing panic or obsessed with Elon Musk let me be clear I would love to never think or hear from Alon musk ever again I wish I could count on the president to be true to his words history is shown otherwise this week I had a telephone town hall and I promise you that the people on that town hall are frightened about the actions of Alon musk and the false Promises of President Trump they are scared that their benefits are
▶ 3:11:51at risk I wish I could provide them the comfort and confidence that Social Security is safe but sadly that's not the world we're living in today Alon musk thinks Social Security and again I am quoting is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time and he's the one in the driver's seat benefits that are earned by people working and paying into a system are not a Ponzi scheme he has Alon musk has said that the fraud and Social Security is
▶ 3:12:21the big one to eliminate I agree we should eliminate fraud we should work to eliminate waste we can all agree that there are improvements to be made in the federal government and processes can always be made more efficient to better serve the American people that's not what doge is doing in my home state of Illinois we have 2.3 million Social Security beneficiaries people who rely on their social security income that they paid for and earned to
▶ 3:12:51make ends meet to give them the security and a retirement they want good customer service we talked about it here one of my colleagues said that hey want we improving customer service well doge is planning to close social security field offices and hearing offices and reduce staff that's not going to improve service what impact will that have on the 70 mli million Americans who receive Social Security benefits rather than improving service these actions will undermine Social Security's
▶ 3:13:22ability to serve beneficiaries and deliver payments on time with certainty and that's just wrong Social Security is a sacred trust it is the foundation of our Economic Security the American people deserve to know what the administration is planning for the future of Social Security and the Social Security admin Administration and what impact that will have on their benefits I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this resolution simply asking for transparency
▶ 3:13:52for information about what the administration is doing to an earned benefit Americans have worked hard worked hard for if it's true as my Republican colleagues say that musk is no threat to the system let this resolution prove us wrong and if as we believe musk has plans to privatize to minimize to reduce and ultimately eliminate Social Security we should know that as well the American people deserve to know the truth I yield back gentleman yields back and now recognize from Florida Mr Bean
▶ 3:14:23uh Mr chairman thank you so much and a very good afternoon to you good afternoon Ways and Means Committee we agree there is something that these two sides that keep going back and forth agree on the American people are scared and confused and there's one reason why they are scared and confused about social security because these folks folks on the left of me keep saying falsely that President Trump
▶ 3:14:54and these Republicans want to cut privatize or eliminate Social Security it is simply not true when you bang your hand on the dis and you raise your voice to scare the American people and confuse them I don't think it does us any good because I'm going to tell you the truth American people I don't know what camera to look at if I'm looking directly at the American people the American people need to know this town our government is addicted to spending
▶ 3:15:24they're addicted to spending and we are an addict of uh of spending both parties both parties have abused it both parties have overspent and now our promise to the American people to always always give you your money through Social Security is in Jeopardy in nine years if we don't make changes in nine years 2034 changes will come automatically and these benefits will be adjusted downward and that's the last thing that President Trump this committee chairman Smith
▶ 3:15:54chairman eses who showed us last week in a uh in a slides show that's really terrifying that we have to make changes so we're going to we're going to we're going to have to cut ourselves off it's like an addict uh realizing that uh changes are going to be have to be have to be made uh we bring in an auditor who points out all of this crazy crazy spending and because some people can't defend the crazy spending found their playbook is the only card
▶ 3:16:24to play is to blame the auditor it's almost as if we owned a store that was robbed Elon Musk watches the video and says here's who stole from you and then we say oh my gosh I can't believe he looked at the videotape he had no authority to look at the videotape of who who robbed me so people we have to come together and I want you to know your words has have consequences you have vilified Elon Musk who's working for free he is a government employee but he's working for free I've got two
▶ 3:16:54articles of massive massive attacks Nationwide on Elon Musk uh Tesla program and dealerships and uh and Mr chairman with your permission I've got a CBS News article Molotov cocktails arson graffiti Across the Nation as well as an online uh addition of order and courts of all of the things that are happening to charging stations across the United States and with without objection ask that they be entered into the record without objection so order so
▶ 3:17:24we're addicted to spending we got to cut ourselves off now I know we keep hearing Elon Musk is unelected he's unelected let me tell you who is unelected whoever was using Biden's Auto pen for the last four years that is who is unelected I've heard some history stories this morning I'm going to give you the history the real history of the last time we came together to solve problems let me tell you who did it it was how about this it was Bill Clinton Bill Clinton and new
▶ 3:17:54Gingrich from both sides of the political Spectrum came together and they they passed the last balanced budget and how about this Bill Clinton did it through the elimination of employees and he did it through $25,000 buyouts he offered uh he offered bu outs for federal employees uh and so that is the Playbook of how we can get it done let me tell you American people I'm looking at you
▶ 3:18:24and I'm I'm making an honest plea to this committee and everybody watching if we're going to solve it maybe we need to go to a room where there's no cameras and we can be honest that we're going broke we have an addiction to spending and it's finally it's just hard to realize that uh that can't continue we're on an unsustainable path that is the dangerous exential threat to our country is just we're spending ourselves into Oblivion so finally we're realizing we've got a government
▶ 3:18:55we can't afford we got employees we can't afford and we are finally rightsizing I know it hurts I know it hurts but if we're going to be the land of the free for our children and grandchildren then we must make these hard decisions right now stand with me Democrats stand with me Republicans and let's go forward for the American people get this job done for our kids and grandkids Mr chairman I yield back gentleman yields back and I recognize from California Mr Panetta thank you Mr chairman I move to
▶ 3:19:25strike the last word to my colleague and good friend from Florida Mr Bean um look man fact is that the Clinton administration had a plan that's all we're asking for we just want to see the plan that's the intent of this resolution right here it's very straightforward and more importantly it's desired and it's demanded by my constituents in California's 19th congressional district all it would do would require the administration to provide congress with details
▶ 3:19:55about what the heck Elon Musk and doge is doing in their accessing of sensitive information at the Social Security Administration all we're asking for is transparency and this inquiry inquiry would do that by requiring information about the actions T taken by Doge to reduce staff and shut down offices at the Social Security we are asking because these actions directly impact the delivery of benefits to all of our constituents
▶ 3:20:25now in my district alone over 140,000 people receive Social Security benefits with 282 million in monthly benefits that's 120,000 retirees 5,000 children and 8,000 disabled workers to get those benefits my constituents need a social security administration that is responsive that's prompt and just able to do its dang job now I agree we'll have to do something about the Social Security Administration if we don't
▶ 3:20:56have serious conversations about it about how we Shore it up about how we fix it we got to do that because if we don't we lose it by 2034 something needs to be done but that something is not putting it in the wood chip wood chipper without a plan because if you allow Elon Musk to do that then you you will be held accountable now one of the the things that I pride myself on and I think if you're a good member of Congress all of us pride ourselves on this is casework making the federal government work for people at a personal
▶ 3:21:26level that's what inspired me to run for Congress because I heard about it throughout my life this is how we are doing our jobs that we can then affect people's lives for the better and when they have an issue with the federal government when it comes to the services of the federal government that they have earned they come to us IRS veterans passports immigration and of course of course Social Security they rely on us to help them with that since I've been in office we have worked on thousands and thousands of cases related to Social Security and
▶ 3:21:56I'm proud to say that when it comes to Social Security we have had numerous numerous success stories for people who come to us after struggling to get answers so we get the inquiry we get on the horn and we push the agencies to get them to do the right thing to get to yes for our constituents we highlight the issue we push the issue and there are people there to help us solve the issue now unfortunately this Administration is doing the exact opposite it's putting the Social Security Agency in a wood chipper by cutting
▶ 3:22:26the people and gutting the systems that help us that help our constituents get their earned benefits they want to decimate it they want to tear it down and eventually it looks like that they want to privatize it they are doing this by planning to close nearly 50 field offices and slashing the Social Security Workforce by 12 percent they have not provided evidence to prove that they that that this can be done without impacting benefits if anything they are proving the opposite closing field offices means longer
▶ 3:22:57travel times and less help for people looking for guidance reducing the workforce means fewer people to review disability claims hear appeals answer phones and sort through the paperwork required to claim survivor benefits last year Social Security call weit times were actually improving and reduced to 13 minutes this year they're already back to doubling that time at over over a half hour what's worse is that as a part of these cuts by Doge the acting Social Security commissioner Leland dudak said himself that Outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of
▶ 3:23:27the Social Security Programs are making decisions and they will make mistakes Mr chairman mistakes could have a terrible consequences for our constituents for your constituents and for the access of benefits that they have earned look our duty as members of Congress is to conduct oversight that means asking the administration basic questions about what they are doing with taxpayer resources and why these act actions have been taken like I said and I think many of you all of us are proud of the casework we do when we make government work for
▶ 3:23:57people but when those Services stop or get reduced the least that we can do is live up to our responsibility as members of Congress to find out why how and what we're asking for it but let me tell you our constituents your constituents are demanding it so it's well pasted time that we stop abating our constitutional responsibilities and start pushing back on this Administration Elon Musk and Doge we fight to ensure that our constituents get those Services let's fight to keep those Services especially when it
▶ 3:24:27comes to Social Security we can do that by supporting this resolution of inquiry and report it favorably thank you Mr chairman I yield back gentleman yields back and now recognize Miss Del Benny for five minutes to strike the last word thank you Mr chairman I yield my time to Mr Larson I thank uh General Eddie from and I would Mr chairman like to submit for the record um in fact it just came out uh that um
▶ 3:24:57under the title of democracy dies in darkness Social Security facing pressure from Doge weighs big cuts to phone service you question why we want to have have Elon Musk in front of us and here the very group that he's leading is
▶ 3:25:28pressuring people to do away with the phone service as Mr Panetta just mentioned his constituents are responding as are all of our constituents pres to the unanimous sent request that ordered pardon unanimous consent ordered thank you for uh and continuing with this article because I think it's very relevant to the discussion here and should be part
▶ 3:25:58of the record it would take me 10 minutes to read it uh but it deserves to be here along with we've heard today a lot about facts here's the facts here's the truth there are over 70 million Americans who rely on Social 10,000 Baby Boomers A Day become eligible for
▶ 3:26:28Social Security there has been no adjustment to Security in over 50 years 5 million of your fellow Americans get below poverty level checks from Social Security having paid into it all lives most
▶ 3:26:58of them are women and of them most of them are women of color for close to 50% of all Americans Social Security is the main thing they have the genius of Franklin delor Roosevelt is still with us today it is the safety net for
▶ 3:27:28capitalism that you guys should be joining with us to make sure that we preserve and extend and provide that opportunity where you have an environment where you can take risk knowing that there's a safety net there for the very people who work hard and play by the rules every day to make that investment I yield my remaining of my time to Mr Neil thank you uh Mr Larson so
▶ 3:27:59my friend Mr Bean pointed out a couple of things I think are really important so let's take a look at the record in 1981 President Reagan presided over a substantial tax cut in 1982 President Reagan looked at the tax cut and said no no no it's too much we have to revisit it which he did 1990 President Bush Senor after having made a pledge at a Republican National Convention based on what he thought were the facts at the time came back and looked at the facts in 1990
▶ 3:28:29and changed his mind in 1993 Bill Clinton he decided that there had to be cuts and revenue increases in 1997 again it took place I would also point out that the Republican leader at the time Bob Michael distinguished member of Congress and a really nice guy by the way he went along with it what President Bush wanted to do and then subsequently what came to be the balance budgets took place four times I don't
▶ 3:28:59understand for the life of me how we can say that we're about to add with the over the objections of this side $4 trillion to the national debt through tax cuts and say that's going to give us a balanced budget the logic escapes all of us so let's take Reagan Bush and Clinton twice and use those models for getting to what we all would like and that's a more balanced budget picture
▶ 3:29:29now recognize Mr Arrington five minutes to strike the last I think the chairman um every dime that is wasted in the Social Security Administration and administrating the benefits to our beloved seniors and quite frankly any government program is a dime that doesn't go to the intended beneficiary to people that depend on these
▶ 3:30:00programs and in the case of Social Security every dime that we're not Vigilant every dime of waste that we're not Vigilant about rooting out shortens the solvency of the Social Security trust fund which now has a fuse of eight years before every senior every retiree that depends on that safety net will
▶ 3:30:30take an automatic 20% cut and that's indisputable we all agree with that so unless and until both sides come together to to actually fix the Broken Social Security system so it's there and sustainable for Generations we ought to do the first order of business and that is reducing and eliminating wasteful
▶ 3:31:00spending and inefficiencies in the program I don't think there's a senior in America that would not support that and and look if this were about just merely having a plan we just wanted to know this is just an innocent request for a little more information and transparency then there wouldn't be this rhetoric about they're decimating the program they're gutting the program they're
▶ 3:31:30utterly destroying the program I don't believe you right now I don't believe that it is this sincere attempt to just understand what the plan is because the rhetoric isn't consistent with that it's rhetoric that is scaring our seniors in fact I think it's predatory and it is and it is not productive to the end of having us work together and we both know both sides know this because
▶ 3:32:00I know my friend Mr lson has a plan but when the Democrats had full control from top to bottom of this town they didn't put that plan on the floor they didn't Advance it now you were willing to do it I appreciate your leadership I don't like your plan but you had the courage to put put it forward we all should accept the reality political reality that it's going to take both sides to do it just like with Reagan and tip O'Neal let me finish my point if if I
▶ 3:32:31may this is not going to help us get there this is why this place is broken and this is why it's nearly impossible for both sides to come together because the baseball bat the political baseball bat is taken out so easily and quickly to beat the other side when they're trying to do the right thing the president said he's not going to touch the benefits he's going to protect
▶ 3:33:01it uh but but in every program and in every way it's being uh poorly managed and dollars are misspent and misappropriated and there's waste and and the taxpayers and the beneficiaries are being defrauded he's going to be vigilant his colleagues like Elon Musk and others who've been tasked with this will be diligent and so will we that is I think an expectation of the
▶ 3:33:32American people I just called the Social Security Administration and and and this was the response I got first of all I couldn't get to a human being they said it's going to take a couple of hours and and I don't know any SC that wouldn't give up on that first fact secondly for the disability uh for the disability benefits it says we'll get back to you in 200 days fill out a bunch of forms wait for two hours we'll get back to you in 200 days there's got to be a better way to run the railroad
▶ 3:34:02and and and seniors have suffered and it's not the answer isn't always throw more money at it throw more people at it I know that's the response for those who believe in you know we you know in the government We Trust well well it's not working seniors aren't getting response uh aren't getting a good response uh people aren't showing up to work and there's a bunch of waste and fraud that needs to be dealt with head on so I I don't believe this scare
▶ 3:34:33tactic is going to work it will whip our seniors into a state of anxiety and distress and that is so unfortunate and so sad I'm I'm out of time and I yield back and I'm sure I'll hear from my friend Mr Larson will M Mr horseford thank you Mr chair I request to strike the last word as lawmakers we have a solemn Duty uh to protect our constituents
▶ 3:35:03those beneficiaries on Social Security from external threats and also from Bad actors within that's why I am calling on my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution the people who elected us did so with the trust that we would Safeguard their privacy ensuring their personal data is never politicized sold to the highest bidder or
▶ 3:35:33used to jeopardize their benefits my constituents should believe and be able to trust that government will work on their behalf regardless of who they choose to represent them on Capitol Hill as well Mr chairman I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record uh an article from CNN Republicans succeed in persuading musk but Democrats hit
▶ 3:36:03dead ends without objection earlier this week president Trump and Elon Musk went about cherry-picking Which social security fied and hearing offices would stay open in the article Mr Cole Oklahoma was able to convince Doge to keep his local offices open while they didn't even have the decency to notify my office of their intent to
▶ 3:36:33close one of the critical offices in Las Vegas let me be clear members of Congress shouldn't have to kiss Elon musk's ass to get our offices for our constituents on Social Security open or to have them remain open I am offended by the fact that members on the other side are using their access to Elon
▶ 3:37:04Musk and jeopardizing the well-being of everyone else my constituents deserve the same treatment that representative koh's are receiving and this is not about politics it's not about voting republican or democrat or whether you belong to a party or not and I also want to lift up this article that just came out because it speaks to the hypocrisy while we are having this hearing
▶ 3:37:34today and while the other side is objecting to even getting basic information about what Elon Musk is doing to Social Security they literally announced ending the phone program that helps with claims processing and is used by millions of elderly and disabled Americans without objection this data shows that the agency received
▶ 3:38:0481.2 million calls to its National toll-free number in 2023 although not all were for claims staff within Social Security are current Curr ly gaming out scenarios for how to handle an Abrupt reduction of telephone service one of the person's briefed on the matter said so to my colleagues do you think this is cutting Social Security it is do you think this is hurting constituents ability
▶ 3:38:34to get their rightful questions asked about their earned benefit this is not an entitlement do you think this is helping make government more efficient and why wouldn't we have the person The Mastermind the genius Elon Musk who's come up with this proposal to come before this committee or at least respond based on the list of questions that are called for in this
▶ 3:39:05query I have 140,000 individuals in my district who depend on Social Security the majority of them it's their sole source of income 108,000 are 16,500 are disabled workers who count on these benefits and yeah I'll bang on the dis because I'm here to defend my constituents from Elon Musk Donald Trump or House Republicans
▶ 3:39:36who will try to take away what they have invested into their own Social Security this is money they earned take your hands off of the people's Social Security it's not yours and Elon Musk wasn't elected to do a damn thing I yield back Mr Le Hood uh thank you Mr chairman this conversation today would be much different if we were $36 trillion in
▶ 3:40:06Surplus but we're not we're $36 trillion in debt and to think that we can't have a conversation about looking at our debt and deficit Economic Policy different is political malpractice it's government malpractice not to have a conversation about Doge not to have a conversation about cutting spending not by having a conversation about the fiscal health of our country and it's interesting I also serve on
▶ 3:40:36our house intelligence committee and last year we had General Petraeus and general mccristal served under Republicans and Democrats RS have unbelievable reputations for serving in our military and they came and talked to us about the threats facing America from our adversaries so they talked about China and they talked about Russia they talked about Iran but they said the biggest threat is our debt and our deficit and as most of us
▶ 3:41:06should know we're paying more now on our interests than we do the entire Department of Defense think about that for a sec it's insane but yet we can't have a conversation with a a new president that ran on uh fixing the fiscal health of this country created the Doge uh committee department on government efficiency again it's political malpractice that we're not thinking this
▶ 3:41:37I want to reference an article from the W it was an editorial in the Wall Street Journal dated February 25th of this year titled America future depends on Doge and I want to read one section of that the message from today's Civic Elites is that the president's job is to pretend to be in charge while doing nothing meaningful shut up don't disturb the administrative State let it keep doing its thing without oversight or disruption and you'll get your library or best-selling
▶ 3:42:07presidential Memoir Mr Trump refuses this deal in his second term he's determined to slay the bureaucrat IC Beast he knows all too well from his first term and the Biden years Doge efforts are epic breath breaking More Than A Century of AC as acquiescence to spending and government the Trump team is courageously confronting the problem head on we have an obligation and responsibility to bring down our debt and get this country back on track
▶ 3:42:37economically and the Doge commission and what president Trump and his team are doing is putting us on that path I yield plaset Mr chair I move to strike the word ladies re recognized thank you thank you very much Mr chair you know uh my colleagues today have been we've all been talking about accountability and I think that this resolution speaks to
▶ 3:43:08accountability because many of us believe that the Trump Administration is taking a wrecking ball to social Administration and they don't want to meet with us about that far from making the agency more efficient the Trump Administration is undermining its ability to serve the public and the primary question is why why is this happening why is
▶ 3:43:38privatization the goal why are they trying to destroy Social Security many of us believe it's the first step of a long-standing effort by Republicans to dismantle trust in Social Security slash benefits and then allow people who are disgruntled and have lost faith in it to allow Wall Street to take it over the Trump Administration wants to close Social Security offices
▶ 3:44:09slash agency's Workforce the Social Security Administration is already at a 50e Staffing low due to years of underfunding and with Baby Boomers increasing the number of beneficiaries that's a recipe for disaster how will gutting the workforce help Social Security Administration serve the American people the point is it does not that's the goal it does not
▶ 3:44:39the chaos and the confusion the constant stream of misinformation and missteps have a purpose let's talk about that the misinformation a Ponzi scheme listen I'm a New Yorker I understand a Ponzi scheme a con man promises a payout that he can't deliver collects the money and disappears that's not what's happening in the Social Security Administration because people have put their money in it and they are receiving
▶ 3:45:09a benefit that's not a Ponzi scheme repeating ly stating that dead people and 150 year olds are receiving checks newspaper every group has said that that's untrue including the W The Washington Post which has already kissed the Ring of the president they're the ones also who have said that that's not true how how are we doing this and why are we doing this we want to bring back
▶ 3:45:40accountability my colleague has stated that uh Doge only has readed only access we've seen weeks ago that that's not true oh they just accidentally were able to make changes to it they told us later on and now they've gone back to readon access as a lawyer the notion that they have can be prosecuted for improper disclosure that's if you find that they've had improper disclosure first of all and second of all if they keep the information for themself for data mining
▶ 3:46:10for future elections we would never be able to find that out to be able to prosecute it because it's not disclosed to anyone but themselves why are they keeping this information and what is the purpose of it make no mistake the Trump administration's actions are to devastate the Social Security administration's ability to serve the public and deliver Social Security payments so that they can then have access to
▶ 3:46:41trillion dollar for Wall Street to be able to play with they need more money because you know what we're not addicted to spending as my colleague said many people are addicted to Greed that's what this is about and the greed happens to be not from themselves but for the American people they that's the Ponzi scheme is them taking your damn money and using it for them own self to enrich themsel more
▶ 3:47:11than they already have that's the addiction and you know what this place is broken cuz Congress has abdicated its responsibility to be the ones to find that race Fraud and Abuse and to do something different about it we're letting somebody who's unelected who's an auditor now he's an auditor is he everything is he God to be able to do what he wants to do with the American people it's got to stop
▶ 3:47:41ail back any further members wish to strike the last word Mr swazi okay thank you uh Mr chairman uh I just want to point out some basic facts that people need to understand Jody this is important in the 1970s we had about 203 million people in America today we have 350 million people in America in the 1970s we had about 3 million federal employees in the 1980s we had 3.3
▶ 3:48:11million federal employees in the 1990s we had 3.4 million federal employees in 2020 we had 3 million same as it was in 1970 and so we have about the same number of employees in the federal government today as we had back in the 1970s even though the population has increased from about 23 million to 350 million people and we've hired a lot more outside contractors than ever before we spent a lot more on outside uh
▶ 3:48:42contracts like with Elon Musk for example but we have the same number of employees that we had Back in 1970 as we do today now in the I don't have back to 1970 but in the Social Security Department you talked about how you you your phone call took a long time today well who's in charge right now because on the day the the Biden Administration left they had gotten it down to a record low response time of 12 minutes to respond to a call which even 12 minutes to me seems like too much but that was a
▶ 3:49:12record low for what it was today it's going through through the roof and if you look at the number of employees in the Social Security Department in 1999 there were 59,000 employees in 2010 there were 66,000 employees so 59,000 in 1999 66,000 in 2010 at the end of the Biden Administration there were 56,000 employees less than it was in 1999 3,000 less than it was in 1999 and now we're talking
▶ 3:49:42about taking it down by another 10,000 well no wonder everybody's going to complain that things are broken and it's not working well because we're trying to take it down now when I was the county executive of Nassau County we was rated the worst run County in America before I got there I want to point out but we went from 8,500 employees down to about 7,000 employees we did not do it by laying off the lowest wage new new employees the probationary employees we did it by normal attrition and by offering retirement incentives to the
▶ 3:50:12highest wage most senior employees and when those people left we try to make up for the the reduced Workforce by improving the technology and by doing consolidation and procedures and processes to make things more efficient what we're doing now through doge is so halfhazard and so reckless and the idea of trying to instill this fear in people and lay off the low way wage people the provisionary employees in places that were trying to hire people up to try
▶ 3:50:42and get to the backlogs like in the IRS where we make more money than we spend when we hire employees doesn't make any sense to me it's just bad management and it's just scaring the hell out of everybody in the process and there's going to be a price to pay politically for people because most most of the federal employees live in Republican districts and in Democratic districts but we'll see that as time goes on all the stuff we're going to see you say we're not going to cut Social Security we're not going to cut Medicaid we're not going to cut Medicare well we're going to find out in the next 6 months or so what people are really up to then we'll really know what
▶ 3:51:12it is and it's not about instilling fear or not instilling fear we're going to find out what it is as time goes on right now we're concerned that what doge is doing is reckless and irresponsible do we need to get rid of waste front abuse yes do we need to make things more efficient yes do we need better technology yes do we need better procedures and processes yes but the way that they're doing it right now and I've given the examples before laying off the people in the nuclear stockpile laying off the people that oversee Aven
▶ 3:51:42flu laying off the people that over measles doesn't make any sense to me Mr chairman thank you very much I want to yield my remaining minute to Chairman Neil my friend from Illinois he said we don't have conversations and we have a conversation we just disagree with you on arithmetic the arithmetic is pretty simple Bush Jr $2.3 trillion worth of tax cuts 2017 borrowing $2.3 trillion for a tax
▶ 3:52:13cut now to hold forth on the basis of what is alleged to be this outof control debt oh and by the way we're going to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion in coming weeks so that we can pay for another tax cut I mean the logic escapes all of us here how we can hold forth and suggest on one hand we're all very concerned about the debt oh but borrow 2.3 trillion to add more to the debt and now $4
▶ 3:52:43trillion we will add to the debt but we can't have that conversation because it gets in the way of our determination to continue to do borrowing and then complain about the size of the debt I yield back thank you chairman additional members wish to strike the last word see none are there amendments
▶ 3:53:14uh we I'd like to strike the last word and i' like okay we'll we'll we'll do that um we we moved on but we'll do that Miss Miller because you don't talk nearly as much as a lot of people on this committee so go Miss Miller well I'm I'm sorry M he may change his mind but I am yielding my time to Mr Arrington my name I'm will gentleman
▶ 3:53:44little the yeld you know I would only speak because my name was invoked my name was invoked and my honor was questioned my Integrity my character uh Tom swazi would never question my my my Integrity or character um he's he's too good of a friend and I wouldn't question his I I I have questioned the motive here as more political than principled and I like
▶ 3:54:14to that but that's my judgment right now I think it's too wrapped up in scoring political points uh and we're we're whipping people up into a frenzy instead of working productively uh uh to to solve some here but I'm not you know Tom I'd have to look at those numbers I have not looked at the numbers but to suggest that the federal government had the same amount of employees
▶ 3:54:45in the 60s and 70s as we do in the 21st century when we didn't even have the microwave oven let alone the internet is not that impressive of a stat to be frank I think we could probably run this government more efficiently post technology Revolution we still need people but we need them to show up like I would have a easier time receiving some of this really
▶ 3:55:15with this with the sincere motive of needing more information wanting uh more insight if the same passion and concern were directed to the many government employees who were not showing up for years and this was post pandemic and we just accepted it as The New Normal and and when we talk about like some of my
▶ 3:55:45colleagues the Democrat colleagues about my constituents are worth it this is their their benefit their earned benefit I agree I agree but why weren't we fighting to make sure that people were were seats butts were in seats calls were being answered cases were being resolved the very fact in every Congressional office experiences we had casework through the roof for our retirees who could could get their phone
▶ 3:56:15calls returned and couldn't get their cases resolved will the gentleman Y and and but but where was the indignation where was the fight for these constituents at that time will the will the gentleman yeld it's a sad thing in this country that we need retirees our beloved seniors to have to work through their member of Congress just to get a daggum phone call returned so I would accept
▶ 3:56:46some of this is in a more sincere fashion if it was consistently Le applied uh when we had democr control and we had other big inefficiency problems uh I trust the president I trust people who have have a track record of successfully and efficiently and effectively running organizations I think this is long overdue I think it should go across the government I think we should get inform and we should get insight
▶ 3:57:16and we should get um um we should get the opportunity to change some of the things that are needed and codified uh by an act of Congress like for example in Medicaid and I'll yield with the example of Medicaid President Biden went back revoked a policy that reviewed the Medicaid roles twice a year so that we
▶ 3:57:46could ensure that only those legally eligible for Medicaid were receiving the benefit that's a taxpayer Safeguard that's a safeguard for sustaining the program and it was revoked from twice a year and it was only done once a year well that's $160 billion worth of waste and fraud because of a simple program Integrity uh measure that was revoked that's common sense I don't think there's
▶ 3:58:16an American out there that would say why in the world would we do that so I appreciate some of the concern but I think it is more political than principal and I appreciate uh my colleagues and I appreciate his I yield back Mr chairman I yield back my time thank you Miss Miller um um any any wish any additional members wish to strike the last words Mr are there any amendments seeing
▶ 3:58:47no amendments I will now recognize Mr Buchanan for the purpose of offering a motion Mr chairman I move the committee report hres 195 adversely to the House of Representatives the question is on the motion to report hres 195 adversely to the House of Representatives the clerk will call the role Mr banan yes Mr banan yes Mr Smith of Nebraska Mr Smith of Nebraska yes Mr Kelly Mr schwier
▶ 3:59:17Mr schwier yes Mr L Hood Mr L Hood yes Mr Arrington Mr Arrington yes Mr Estus Mr Estus yes Mr smucker Mr smucker yes Mr Hearn Mr Hearn yes Mrs Miller Mrs Miller yes Dr Murphy Dr Murphy yes Mr kustoff Mr kustoff yes yes Mr Fitzpatrick Mr Fitzpatrick
▶ 3:59:47yes Mr stuie Mr stuie yes Miss tinny Miss tinny yes Mrs fishbach yes Mrs fishbach yes Mr Moore yes Mr Moore yes Miss vany Miss vany yes Mr finstra Mr finstra yes Miss malot TZ Mr Cary Mr Cary yes Mr yakum Mr yakum yes Mr
▶ 4:00:17Miller Mr Miller yes Mr Bean yes M Mr Bean yes Mr Moran Mr Moran yes Mr Neil Mr Neil no Mr doet Mr doet no Mr Thompson Mr Thompson no Mr lson Mr Larson no Mr Davis Mr Davis no Miss Sanchez Miss Sanchez no Miss
▶ 4:00:47Su miss Ben Miss no Miss Chu Miss Chu no Miss Moore Miss Moore no Mr Bole no Mr Bole no Mr Byer Mr Byer no Mr Evans Mr Evans no Mr Schneider Mr Schneider no Mr Panetta Mr Panetta no Mr Mr Gomez Mr
▶ 4:01:17Horford Mr Horford no Miss plaset no Miss plaset no Mr swazi Mr no Mr Mr how is Mr Gomez I hear him recorded Miss Mr Gomez is not recorded Mr Gomez
▶ 4:01:50no Miss malot Miss chairman Smith yes chairman Smith
▶ 4:02:28the clerk will report the vote the yeses are 24 the NOS are 18 there being 24 yeses and 18 NOS the motion is agreed to in hres 195 is ordered reported adversely to the house without objection members have two additional days to file with the committee clerk supplemental additional dissenting or minority views we are
▶ 4:03:12adjourn for