Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Lloyd Doggett Warns DOGE and MUSK Had ‘Read And Write Access’ To Sensitive US Databases
Transcript
- 0:00Now, before we get too deep into this episode, I want to share
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- 1:03All right. Thanks.
- 1:05Who know is that first Mr. Must saw tax information that is
- 1:09housed in the Treasury's Bureau of Fiscal Services And when the
- 1:13former nonpartisan top career official at the Treasury
- 1:17Department, a trusted guardian of Americans privacy under both
- 1:21Republican and Democratic presidents for more than 35
- 1:25years. When he rebuffed Musk and said
- 1:28he wanted to protect the privacy as he had done for three
- 1:31decades, he was pushed aside. While administration officials
- 1:37initially testified that Doge was granted read only, They were
- 1:40just going to read and invade our privacy.
- 1:43That way the sensitive data they were later and forced to admit
- 1:47that the Musketeers had both read and write.
- 1:50That is, they can make changes in the sensitive databases
- 1:53related to federal tax returns, Social Security benefits,
- 1:58Supplemental Social Security Income benefits, and pay for
- 2:01veterans. Not satisfied with this
- 2:05temporary access to American families, financial information
- 2:09must then came for some of the even more highly guarded
- 2:13taxpayer data that's contained in the IRS Integrated Data
- 2:17Retrieval System. This is a system to which access
- 2:21is denied to political officials, even the IRS
- 2:24Commissioner, the taxpayer advocate, and the IRS Chief
- 2:28information officer. And I want to respond directly
- 2:30to you, Mr. Schmucker, about that and your claim that there
- 2:33were hundreds of additional people that we wanted to have go
- 2:36into all this data. What we wanted was to enforce
- 2:39the tax laws. We wanted the tax cheats to be
- 2:42brought to justice. You all took the cop off the
- 2:45beat. But let me make this point.
- 2:48The data that Musk and the Musketeers are seeking that they
- 2:51perhaps got exposed is data that is so sensitive that even the
- 2:56IRS commissioner is not entitled to see it.
- 2:59That is protected data protected until this happened.
- 3:03And the claim that because some of it that they got was
- 3:06anonymous would not get into the privacy was rebutted by Mr.
- 3:11Barthole when I questioned him as the head of the Joint
- 3:13Committee on Taxation, an independent, nonpartisan group,
- 3:18who explained to us how that data could be used.
- 3:21When Mr. Musk and his AI and his minions and his Musketeers get
- 3:25together and compare these databases and invade our
- 3:28privacy, we must adopt this resolution.
- 3:31I yield back. Gentleman yields.
- 3:36Now recognize Mr. Evans, just write the last word.
- 3:40Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this conversation,
- 3:44led by Mr. Doggett, the gentleman could speak into the
- 3:47microphone. This conversation LED by Mr.
- 3:50Doggett, I think he needs to know I like the year of my time.
- 3:53To Mr. Doggett, thank you very. Much.
- 3:59Thank you very much for that. There are two laws that Mister
- 4:03Musk and DOGE are ignoring. They are Section 61 O three of
- 4:07the Internal Revenue Code and the Privacy Act of 1974.
- 4:11Section 61, O3, which has been before this committee on
- 4:15numerous occasions, protects the confidentiality of tax returns
- 4:21and return information, including all of the tax return
- 4:25information that is received, are collected by the Internal
- 4:28Revenue Service. The Privacy Act of 1974 was
- 4:32designed to provide individual Americans with more control over
- 4:37the government gathering, disseminating, and using our
- 4:41private information. What's happened to the
- 4:45libertarians in the Republican Party who once believed that
- 4:49government was a challenge and that the privacy of American
- 4:52citizens should be protected from the overreach of
- 4:55government? What we have here is an
- 4:57overreach without justification. Why is it necessary in fighting
- 5:01waste, fraud and abuse to interfere with the personal data
- 5:06of American citizens, every American citizens of the issues
- 5:12that we have before us today or that DOGE has also sought access
- 5:18to what are called omnibus sharing agreements.
- 5:21This is another aspect I've not touched on so far.
- 5:24And these omnibus sharing agreements would let must the
- 5:27link individual tax data across the whole host of different
- 5:31federal agencies. A federal statute makes it
- 5:34unlawful for the IRS to share taxpayer data with other
- 5:39agencies for reasons unrelated to the administration of our tax
- 5:42system. New York University Tax Law
- 5:45Center experts indicate that such an omnibus information
- 5:49sharing agreement across agencies would not conform with
- 5:52the strict, strict rules of 61 O3 that govern how and when
- 5:57taxpayer information can be shared.
- 5:59And so again, here is an area that needs to be explored other
- 6:04than through an empty witness chair to find out about the
- 6:07extent of the violation of federal law with this sharing
- 6:10agreement that has been rubber stamped by the administration.
- 6:13And most recently, just last week, Mr. Musk came for more of
- 6:19Americans private information stored in the Child Support
- 6:22database that is used to enforce court order child support
- 6:26payments, which is a good, good thing.
- 6:29But each agency receives tax data that has a detailed data
- 6:34sharing agreement with IRS and they have to comply with those
- 6:38taxpayer privacy protections when that goes over to the
- 6:42Department of Health and Human Services.
- 6:44Unfortunately, Health and Human Services is now run by the
- 6:48vaccine denier Robert F Kennedy Junior.
- 6:52And he not disregarding really those requirements.
- 6:56He gave those exactly what they asked for.
- 6:59It's simply outrageous that Americans private and personal
- 7:03financial information has not been protected from the prying
- 7:06eyes of an unelected billionaire and his teenage Musketeers.
- 7:11At a bare minimum, Congress and the American people need a full
- 7:16accounting of what data has been shared with Musk and Doge and
- 7:20for what purposes. And despite all the rhetoric on
- 7:23the other side, we have absolutely no explanation as to
- 7:28why that right of Americans for a full accounting is not being
- 7:32provided, why it is being obstructed and blocked by the
- 7:35Republicans. Answers to this resolution of
- 7:39inquiry on behalf of all the Democrats on this committee will
- 7:43provide us with a little of that accounting.
- 7:46Only then can we begin to move forward as a bipartisan
- 7:50majority, as the bipartisan majority did over 50 years ago
- 7:55when there was criminality from another Republican president in
- 7:59the wake of the Watergate scandal and addressed the
- 8:02shortcomings of the enforcement of our tax privacy law and begin
- 8:06to restore taxpayer trust in our voluntary tax system.
- 8:11The Republicans basically say they don't know and they don't
- 8:14care what Musk is doing with your personal tax return, your
- 8:18Social Security information, your health data, anything
- 8:21concerning child custody. And by blocking this resolution,
- 8:25they just want to ensure that no questions are asked and no
- 8:29information about this likely violation of multiple federal
- 8:33laws ever becomes public. That's why we should adopt this
- 8:37resolution. And I yield back.
- 8:41Authority, statutory authority. We will remain independent and
- 8:45objective and we'll continue to follow our auditing standards
- 8:48and our work continues unabated as we currently are still
- 8:53working under our Inspector General, Doctor Kafari.
- 8:56Thank you. And my question to Mr. Curry is
- 8:59for over 100 years, GAO has played a crucial role in
- 9:04enhancing the effectiveness of government programs and ensuring
- 9:08taxpayer money is well spent. Over the past 20 years, GAO work
- 9:13has resulted in about 1.45 trillion in financial benefits
- 9:19and over 30,000 programs and operational benefits.
- 9:25Through its high risk list, GAO focused attention on the most
- 9:29significant challenges facing the government.
- 9:33Once the challenge is human capital, including skills
- 9:36shortage, a challenge Doge does not seem to appreciate as it
- 9:43purges civil servants, what are the consequences of reducing the
- 9:49federal workforce using a sledgehammer rather than a
- 9:53scalpel? Well, you're correct.
- 9:57Many of the high risk areas, and there's over 30 of them across
- 10:00all of the federal government that we've identified are on the
- 10:03list because of some sort of staffing or capacity challenge.
- 10:07That means that either they don't have the right number of
- 10:10people to perform the mission or they don't have the right
- 10:12skills. So typically what you do is you,
- 10:16you figure out what you want the government or the agencies to do
- 10:19and how you want to do it, and then you figure out what sort of
- 10:21staff you need to do it. So obviously it's, it's going to
- 10:25have some implications, but you know, we, we don't know yet what
- 10:28exactly those will be. Thank you.
- 10:30And Miss Lang, I didn't give you any time to respond.
- 10:32So if you want to take a couple 30 seconds if you like.
- 10:37No, thank you. I.
- 10:38Think my colleague covered. Everything.
- 10:40Thank you, Chair, and I yield back.
- 10:47Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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