At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Friday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) spoke about President Trump's nominees.
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NewsTranscript
00:01Next is Senator Hassan.
00:03Well, thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking Member, for this markup and making it possible that
00:09members can voice their significant concerns about how Elon Musk's action at the Treasury
00:14Department are harming families across the country.
00:17I will echo the comments of the Senator from Washington.
00:22We have been waiting for the Trump administration to actually do the work to lower costs and
00:28make life more affordable for Americans, and of course they are not.
00:32They are ruining the economy, and they are creating chaos and corruption everywhere they
00:39go.
00:40For my entire time in public service, I've worked on many bipartisan efforts to cut waste,
00:46fraud, and abuse across state government and federal government, and I strongly support
00:51efforts to make government more efficient.
00:53But Elon Musk's actions serve only to help him gain power, increase his personal wealth,
00:59and sow chaos at the expense of American families.
01:03In his first week in office, President Trump fired 18 independent watchdogs whose whole
01:09jobs are to stop waste, fraud, and abuse, including the firing of the independent watchdog
01:15at the Treasury Department.
01:17With the independent Treasury watchdog gone, Elon Musk moved immediately to install his
01:23own loyalists at the Treasury Department and to give them unlimited access to Americans'
01:29personal financial information, as well as the power to block any payment by the federal
01:34government to a community nonprofit or a small business that Elon Musk dislikes.
01:40Fortunately, some of Mr. Musk's illegal attempts have been blocked by federal courts for now,
01:46but as we have just heard from our ranking member, the violations of law at Treasury
01:50continue and the harm to the American people grows.
01:54I understand the value that a respected outsider with significant private sector experience
01:59could bring to government operations, but that's not who Elon Musk installed at Treasury
02:05to sift through Americans' private personal information.
02:10The DOJ staffer who was given official access to sensitive personal information in IRS systems
02:16is a Musk loyalist who previously worked for SpaceX and Twitter.
02:22Following the President's attempt in February to unilaterally take away all federal grants
02:26through an indefinite funding freeze, I believe that all members of this committee should
02:32be significantly concerned about what Elon Musk will take away from our communities as
02:38he regains access to the Treasury payment system.
02:42Now, one last comment about the nominee.
02:45Mr. Faulkner, to his credit, and I can't believe that I have to say this in a committee
02:50in the United States Senate, to his credit stated that he would follow the law rather
02:54than an illegal directive from the President.
02:59He stated he would follow the law rather than an illegal directive from the President and
03:03that is the exception among nominees right now to this administration.
03:08That I have to ask that question now of every nominee is an outrage and every member of
03:13this committee should be outraged by it.
03:17But despite the fact that Mr. Faulkner at least showed the character to say he'd follow
03:22the law, again, it should be a prerequisite for any nominee, given Elon Musk's power grab
03:30at the expense of American families, I have to oppose Mr. Faulkner's nomination today.