During Wednesday’s House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) discussed the public reaction to Elon Musk's actions through DOGE.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
00:06My constituents are confused and afraid, and rightly so.
00:10They want answers to very basic questions.
00:13They want to know why Donald Trump has given Elon Musk and his Doge team access to extremely
00:19sensitive, private, personal data that's supposed to be protected by the Treasury Department
00:26and the Social Security Administration.
00:28They want to know what Musk's unvetted and unqualified acolytes are doing with their
00:33Social Security numbers, their home addresses, their income levels, and confidential medical
00:39records that they were required to submit when applying for disability.
00:44They want to know how a president could support these unlawful breaches into the databases
00:49of taxpayers and Social Security recipients, which puts their livelihoods at risk.
00:56And as bad as that is, there's so much we don't know.
01:01That's why we're asking Republicans to join us and vote for these resolutions of inquiry.
01:06This is pretty simple.
01:08They ask very simple questions like, what confidential taxpayer information has Elon
01:15Musk and Doge accessed?
01:18Why is this controversial?
01:21We are a co-equal branch of government.
01:23We are in charge of oversight.
01:26If you feel like there's no concerns here, then why wouldn't you want that information
01:30to be out in the public for people to be able to ask questions and get a response?
01:36This should be easy if you're not concerned.
01:40Instead, Republicans are hiding.
01:44And that's why we're sitting here at this moment.
01:47Before Congress, I was the director of the Washington State Department of Revenue.
01:52I know firsthand how important it is to protect sensitive information from bad actors in order
01:57to maintain public trust in government.
02:00Now the public wants to know if our government is the bad actor, illegally sharing personally
02:06sensitive data that could result in your identity being stolen or your medical records being
02:11leaked.
02:13I have been pushing for nearly a decade to pass a national data privacy law to put people
02:19back in charge of their data and protect personal information.
02:24What is more personal than your social security number or your medical history or your financial
02:29history?
02:31And especially when we look at medical history, we've seen Republicans going after women seeking
02:36reproductive care.
02:38People are worried about healthcare being cut, targeting those with pre-existing conditions
02:43or whoever else they want to target next.
02:46Of course, people are concerned about how information will be used.
02:50We should be trying to strengthen privacy laws, not undermine existing laws by letting
02:56random DOJ staffers breach existing law by accessing private taxpayer data.
03:03This should be a bipartisan effort to get answers to questions.
03:07And it's incredibly disappointing to see Republicans trying to avoid even the most basic questions
03:12from being asked.
03:14And as Congresswoman Sanchez suggested too, maybe not surprising if folks aren't even
03:19willing to have a town hall and listen to the constituents.
03:23So it's important that we ask these questions and it's important that we get answers.
03:28And I yield back.