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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday, Elon Musk took issues to my warning that DOGE is operating in many ways like a shadow government. Here is what I said.

I said:

DOGE is not a real government agency.

DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions.

DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or ignore federal law.

DOGE's conduct cannot be allowed to stand.

Congress must take action to restore the rule of law.

His response? Here is what Musk said:

Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that @DOGE is doing work that really matters.

This is the one shot . . . American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy . . . and restore DEMOcracy. . . .

Give me a break. Nothing screams democracy like having a secret squad of company men pull off a hostile takeover of America's Social Security and tax information in the dead of night.

That is democracy? No openness? No hearings? No discussion? No hearing the other side? From a small group of limited people who have limited backgrounds, who probably don't even know about the programs they are cutting and how they actually work.

Whatever DOGE is doing, it is certainly not--not--what democracy looks like or has ever looked like in the grand history of this country, because democracy does not work in the shadows. Democracy does not skirt the rule of law. Democracy does not shun accountability and restraint, does not run away from transparency but welcomes it, and does not give privilege to the needs and even the ideas of a small group of ultrawealthy people at the expense of working people.

They are the only people who seem to be in the room to make the decisions. Working-class Americans are excluded--are excluded.

Now, reform is a worthy cause to seek--no question about it. Everyone agrees and everyone should agree that we should find ways to improve the effectiveness; we should find ways to improve the efficiency of government. But do you know what history shows? When it is done in the dark of night by a very limited group of people of limited experience, it never works. When ideas are not brought into conflict, when people have different views, when there is not debate, when there is not openness, when there is not transparency, things always get messed up. It leads to very bad results. Yet that is just what DOGE is doing. They know better than everybody else. Certainly, they are entitled to have their viewpoint--certainly--but to just do things in the dark of night, to just fire people without even talking to them--what they do, what their needs are--makes no sense and, again, is going to lead to bad results.

We should talk about reform, but we should talk about it in the way it has always been done in America--in the Halls of Congress, in the public forums of the people's government. That is what the Founding Fathers wanted. If the Founding Fathers were to be like DOGE, a small group of them would get together and just dictate what should have been done in America. It didn't. They set up a Congress. They set up debate.

The American people--mark my words--the American people will not stand for an unelected, secret group to run rampant through the executive branch.

Being innovative is good. But, Mr. Musk, this isn't a tech startup. These are public institutions that deal with things like Social Security and Medicare and national defense and provide for the well- being of the American people, and the American people have a right to be part of that debate--part of that debate.

The elections occurred, and one viewpoint got a few more votes than the other. But that doesn't mean we throw out democracy. That doesn't mean what has been done for centuries in this country should just go out the window and be substituted by a small group of people who think they know a lot more than the wisdom of the American people.

So that is why, this week, Leader Jeffries and I will join together to push legislation to prevent unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department's payment systems, to prevent everyone's records from being made available to a small group of people who can look at them at will when this has always been kept secret and always been protected--your tax returns and your payment systems and things like that. It affects average Americans. And who knows--next they will say: Let's slash all of this stuff. That is what they seem to want to do in their $2.5 trillion desire to cut government.

We must protect people's Social Security payments, their Medicare payments, and their tax refunds from any possible tampering by DOGE or any other unauthorized entity. That is why Leader Jeffries and I will join together to push this legislation.

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