Trump Administration's Dismantling of the Federal Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, last week, my colleague, Haley Stevens, and I introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. I am going to get to that in a minute.

I woke up this morning to find that apparently this bill had gotten Mr. Musk's attention. I will read the tweet from that great statesman and special government employee, Elon Musk:

``Any given law will do the opposite of its name.

``The one this guy wants to pass is called `Taxpayer Protection,' which means its real goal is giving taxpayers the shaft!

``What he really cares about is hiding the biggest scam in human history.''

Those are his words, the great statesman, Elon Musk.

I would point out that we attack what we fear. As Teddy Roosevelt said: It is the man in the ring who matters.

I would like to give Mr. Musk a little view from inside this ring. A couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk and his goons hacked into the Treasury payment system. That is the system that controls $5 trillion a year of payments. They came in with unsecured software, unsecured hardware, and unvetted individuals. They claimed they only had read-only access. It now turns out that they actually had write access, as well.

We don't know what information they extracted from that system, but it may make them targets of our foreign adversaries. They could have stolen data that affects the privacy of every single American taxpayer. They also potentially accessed data on the payment systems and identities of intelligence assets that we have embedded overseas in hostile foreign governments who are risking their lives to keep America safe.

What this bill does is exactly what it says it does, notwithstanding this childish tweet. It is the Taxpayer Data Protection Act.

I point out that the only reason Mr. Musk got into the system is because, when he asked Treasury Secretary Bessent to let him into the system, the civil servant and patriot, David Lebryk, who was running the system, said: No, you cannot do this. At that point, Secretary Bessent fired Mr. Lebryk, and the theft of data occurred.

What we did in this bill is said that, going forward, the Treasury Secretary cannot allow anybody to access the Treasury payment system unless: number one, they have a top secret clearance; number two, they have no economic conflicts of interest; number three, they are not a special government employee; and, number four, they have been employed by the Federal Government for at least 1 year.

That is a problem if one is a Nazi-saluting, economically conflicted, special government employee who is so desperately in need of validation that they bought a social media company and tweaked its algorithm to amplify their own tweets and fill their own sense of self-worth, who is currently cosplaying as a public servant.

It is not a problem for taxpayers. It is not a problem for data integrity.

I understand protecting personal data has never been Elon Musk's jam, but it is necessary. This bill does exactly what it says, which is why he fears it and why he attacks it.

Let me say what I fear. I fear what happens to our country if his conflicts of interest are allowed to run roughshod and trample over Americans' right to privacy and all that has ever truly made America great.

We are attacking what we fear, as well, and I hope that we can find three Republicans who are committed to the idea that that is something worth defending.

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