| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Congressman Russ Fulcher, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Freedom Caucus, talks about House Republicans' approach to implementing President Trump's legislative agenda. | |
| Washington Journal, join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Well, next, House Democrats introduced legislation in response to Elon Musk's access to Treasury Department data, urging Republicans to join Democrats in passing this bill. | ||
| It took additional questions on the Department of Government Efficiency as well as Trump administration policy. | ||
| This is just under half an hour. | ||
| Good afternoon, everyone. | ||
| House Democrats have repeatedly made clear that we will work with anyone in this town to solve problems for hardworking American taxpayers and make life better for everyday Americans, particularly as it relates to driving down the high cost of living. | ||
| We will work with anyone in this town. | ||
| At the same time, we, of course, will continue to push back against far-right extremism that is hurting the American people. | ||
| And we will continue to keep it real with the American people. | ||
| House Republicans don't appear interested in working for everyday Americans and solving problems for hardworking American taxpayers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why? | |
| Because they are working for Elon Musk and doing the bidding of an unelected, unaccountable, out-of-control billionaire puppet master. | ||
| Why does Elon Musk and his minions need access to the names, social security numbers, addresses, birth dates, and bank account information of millions of Americans? | ||
| Why does he need that information? | ||
| What are they doing with it? | ||
| And why aren't House Republicans stopping them? | ||
| They're not stopping them because they're not working in the best interest of the American people. | ||
| They're simply following far-right extreme orders. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is why we are introducing the Taxpayer Data Protection Act to shield the American people from this out-of-control power grab permanently and to make sure that the financial, personal, medical, and confidential information of the American people is protected. | |
| In that regard, I'm so thankful for the leadership of Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Congressman Sean Caston. | ||
| And it's my honor to yield to Congresswoman Stevens. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
| It is truly serious and absolutely essential that I'm standing up here today with you as our Democratic leader in the House of Representatives alongside our Democratic WIP and our Democratic caucus chair, Democratic Whip Catherine Clark, Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. | ||
| I think all of you in this room know them, as we seek to introduce and we take the steps to introduce the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. | ||
| You see, During the start of a different presidential administration in a different time, I was a Schedule C political appointee in the Department of the Treasury during a true time of economic crisis for this nation. | ||
| Barack Obama's swearing in in January of 2009, when we were facing a great recession as a Michigander, when our auto industry was staring true liquidation and bankruptcy in the face, when millions of Americans were facing job loss in addition to housing insecurity, | ||
| our financial markets were being rocked and our insurance sector was on shaky footing. | ||
| A group of us came together into the Treasury Department. | ||
| It almost didn't matter what party you were. | ||
| And in fact, the previous administration under George Bush kept some of his people there. | ||
| We stayed together. | ||
| We worked together to address this economic crisis. | ||
| I was on the auto rescue team with a man named Steve Ratner. | ||
| We had an initiative called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and it was sizable dollars of federal money, of taxpayer money, to save our economy from true devastation. | ||
| But no one was poking around in the Bureau of Fiscal Service. | ||
| No one was seeking to get access to taxpayer data or financial information that has to do with the wires and the complication of those goods. | ||
| We were standing up for people and making a difference for them. | ||
| So this Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which will push back against these alarming and potentially illegal actions that are taking place, these headlines to the American people are alarming. | ||
| They are absolutely alarming. | ||
| The news writes them, but the headline is that Musk has your data, that Musk has control of the systems. | ||
| As a Treasury appointee, that is unfathomable. | ||
| That is totally unbelievable and wrong. | ||
| So our Taxpayer Data Protection Act will seek to make sure that the payment systems don't have reckless interference, that those who have access to them can't just be a special appointee, a political appointee, how we schedule the appointees. | ||
| No, it needs to be overseen by someone who has the top security clearance, who has the credentials, who doesn't have the conflict of interest. | ||
| We love our country and we want what is best for our country. | ||
| And you heard our leader say it true. | ||
| We have to focus on what the American people are facing. | ||
| Rising costs, home ownership, making systems work for people. | ||
| We've got fantastic employment, but we've got to do costs. | ||
| And that is what we are focused on. | ||
| And the Taxpayer Data Protection Act will stand up to these questions and these concerning behaviors of Elon Musk. | ||
| And with that, I have a colleague who I'm introducing this bill with, Sean Castin, a very accomplished member of the House Financial Services Committee and a true expert in these matters as well. | ||
| Thank you, Haley. | ||
| Thank you to our whole leadership team. | ||
| You know, days like today make me so proud to be a Democrat. | ||
| We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis, and we are doing the work. | ||
| The amount of work that went through on very short order to deal with this emergency that's coming through is because people who care about their job, who take their patriotism seriously, their oath to the Constitution seriously, and that's what we're here to do. | ||
| I wish we didn't have to do it, but my God, I've got to be on this team. | ||
| We are here today because there is a narcissistic billionaire running the government who peddles in fascism, is known for his history of lying, short paying his vendors, terminating employees who challenge his worldview, and using the judicial system as a cudgel against anyone who dares challenge him. | ||
| And if you are listening to that and saying, is he talking about Donald Trump or Elon Musk, then you kind of get the problem, don't you? | ||
| The actions that Musk and his IT goons have taken through their illegal, very clearly illegal, but so far unprosecuted actions, have already compromised millions of Americans' privacy and data security. | ||
| And if you want to understand how nervous you should all be, think about how hard Donald Trump worked to protect his tax returns from becoming public, even under a legitimate subpoena from the House of Representatives. | ||
| Why do we think that Elon Musk and Donald Trump would like to have access to your home address, your bank records, your history of charitable giving, alimony payments you may have made, child care payments you may be making, all of this private information that you would like, why do we think they want that information? | ||
| Why do we think that they want the ability to illegally stop payments that are legally due to hospitals that may be providing women's health care services they don't support, to veterans agencies that are helping our veterans, to Social Security recipients who maybe marched at a rally and said something they didn't like? | ||
| Why are they doing that? | ||
| Why did they allow a bunch of, let's be honest, practically children, teenagers, young 20-somethings, why did they allow them to go into systems that control trillions of dollars of Treasury payments that every one of our adversaries would deeply like to hack into because if they could hack into there, they could destroy the U.S. economy. | ||
| Why did they allow these children to go in there with unsecured software and hardware and tamper with those systems? | ||
| Why did they do that at the same time that they were firing FBI agents, firing CI agents? | ||
| What is the consequence of that? | ||
| If we close this barn door today, how much has already burned down? | ||
| We don't know the answers to those questions. | ||
| I wish we didn't have to ask. | ||
| But those are the stakes of this moment. | ||
| And there's an even larger question, as our leader alluded to. | ||
| Why is the Department of Justice not enforcing the law and prosecuting these crimes right now? | ||
| Why do we not have Republicans who all took the same oath we did a couple weeks ago to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic? | ||
| Why are they standing there doing nothing? | ||
| I know every one of us was elected to lead. | ||
| None of us went out in the elections and said, if you elect me, I will promise to cower before the first bully who shows up. | ||
| That's what we're here to do to lead. | ||
| This legislation is an important first step. | ||
| We're not going to stand idly by, and this legislation will become law. | ||
| All we need is three Republicans to show a little bit of patriotism to join us in this effort. | ||
| I know they're out there. | ||
| I know they've got the patriotism. | ||
| They just got to show the courage. | ||
| That's where we are right now. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| I should mention that our office has received more phone calls on this topic than anything in my six years of Congress. | ||
| And I say that only because if I leave here early, it is only because we called a telephone town hall that's starting in about 30 minutes. | ||
| And I have to be talking to people because they are all deathly concerned about what this means for them for all the reasons that I articulated. | ||
| Hopefully I'll be able to stick around for questions. | ||
| In the meantime, turn it over to our wonderful and talented Whip Katherine. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| And thank you, Congressman Casten and Congresswoman Stevens, for bringing us the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, because this is going to address the deep anxiety across the country about Elon Musk hacking into Americans' most personal information and the illegal cutting of federal funding for critical services. | ||
| Last week, I received a note from a public school teacher in my district. | ||
| She was very concerned about what's going to happen to education and federal funding for her school. | ||
| She worried about the grants that might not be there that help provide special education services in her school and across this country. | ||
| She worried about the school lunches not being available for her students that need them. | ||
| But the thing she told me she was worried about more than anything else, she wrote, as a citizen of the nation, I am even more concerned about the overt power grab and overreach we're seeing from an unelected billionaire. | ||
| I've heard the same thing from Head Start caregivers, from veterans and firefighters, from nurses and doctors at our community health centers, from seniors watching Elon infiltrate their Social Security and Medicare information, calling our office terrified, wondering if they're going to get their next Social Security check. | ||
| The American people are paying attention. | ||
| They have watched Republicans not just stand in silence, but cheer on the illegal actions that are going to make their lives harder, more expensive, and compromise the security of their personal information. | ||
| All the while enriching further Elon Musk. | ||
| Democrats are fighting back with everything we've got, and we will use every tool at our disposal to protect the interests of the American people, to uphold the Constitution, and guard everyday families from this Republican billionaire's first agenda. | ||
| Elon can buy a lot. | ||
| He's the richest man in the world. | ||
| But the American people and their security is not for sale. | ||
| If House Republicans believe that the federal government belongs to the people, that the theft of taxpayer money is wrong, then they will join us in bringing this legislation up for a vote. | ||
| In the House, it takes three patriots to speak out for their constituents and to stand up for their country, to stop stealing from the deserving, to further enrich the billionaire class. | ||
| Three GOP members can end this today. | ||
| And now I'll turn it over to our distinguished chairman of the House, Pete Aguilar. | ||
| Thank you, Whip Clark and Leader Jeffries, and I want to thank the leadership of Haley Stevens and Sean Castin for introducing this bill, because House Democrats will not sit by as an unelected billionaire with controversial ties to China is given access to the most sensitive personal data about the American people and to potentially use that data to illegally cut programs that are vital to our national security, | ||
| just to help pay for tax cuts to benefit his own bottom line. | ||
| We will not stay silent as House Republicans surrender Congress's constitutional power in order to allow MAGA extremists and conspiracy theorists to continue. | ||
| We know that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are just as outraged as we are, but they have to keep quiet out of fear of retribution from the MA extremists. | ||
| We only need three Republicans with the courage of their convictions to join our efforts to protect the American people from this extreme and illegal overreach. | ||
| Today they're illegally gutting USAID, which prevents China and other adversaries from expanding their influence. | ||
| But tomorrow it's your health insurance. | ||
| The next day it's your mother's social security check. | ||
| This is not what the American people voted for. | ||
| The Taxpayer Data Protection Act will rein in the corruption we're seeing at the White House and put an end to this chaos. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Turn it over to Leader Jeffries. | |
| On topic questions. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you help me understand how this connects to the bill that you discussed with Leader Schumer the other day? | |
| Is it the same? | ||
| Do they complement each other? | ||
| Can you just help me clarify how this bill connects to what you're expectation that Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats will introduce a companion bill shortly? | ||
| We believe that the unlawful access to sensitive and financial information for hardworking American taxpayers has to be stopped. | ||
| And we know here in the House, unfortunately, that the House Republican leadership has demonstrated no interest in reining in this out-of-control behavior. | ||
| Here in the House, all it takes are three Republicans to join with us to protect the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Leader Jeffries, in addition to this bill, what do you see as the options that Democrats have to push back on Elon Musk's efforts and Doge's efforts? | |
| We will continue to use the congressional arena as well as the litigation arena and the mobilization arena to push back against the far-right extremism that we are seeing across the board from this administration and from House Republicans. | ||
| We will introduce legislation. | ||
| We will move that legislation aggressively. | ||
| We will work through the court system and we will continue to communicate to the American people about what's happening, why it's happening, and why the promises that were made by Republicans to lower the high cost of living aren't being kept. | ||
| This is day 18 of this new administration. | ||
| Not a single bill, not a single idea, not a single initiative to lower the high cost of living. | ||
| Housing costs in America are too high. | ||
| Child care costs are too high. | ||
| Grocery costs are too high. | ||
| Utility costs are too high. | ||
| And insurance costs are too high. | ||
| We've seen nothing from House Republicans, nothing from the administration. | ||
| They told the American people one thing and they're doing another. | ||
| And they're not even stepping in to protect the best interests of the American people, which is why the Taxpayer Data Protection Act is so urgently needed. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
| Can you attempt to answer your own question that you and Mr. Cassin posed, which is why is Elon Musk accessing all of this data through the federal agencies? | ||
| You mentioned names, social security numbers, medical records, things like that. | ||
| What is your worst fear here about why he is doing this? | ||
| Great question. | ||
| I'm going to yield to our two sponsors. | ||
| Well, certainly we need that answer, but we know that we need the protection. | ||
| This is uncharted, unprecedented ground. | ||
| I'm telling you, as a former Treasury person, I mean, I was there during an actual crisis, not a self-inflicted crisis. | ||
| We need the answer to why he's doing it. | ||
| We need our legislation. | ||
| We need this Taxpayer Data Protection Act. | ||
| This is unbelievable lawlessness. | ||
| We've always had this trust between the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and then in comes this executive order that seemingly has allowed this individual to go in to the fiscal bureau of the United States of America and say that he has your information. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, people are struggling to pay the bills. | |
| Let's be honest, as the leader just said. | ||
| So, yes, all they need to do is we got to have three join us and get this bill passed. | ||
| And by the way, my friends, the first Friday of this month is tomorrow. | ||
| Jobs numbers are coming out. | ||
| We didn't see a slip for the last four years. | ||
| I just want to just talk about what I'm truly afraid of, and I'm saying what's happening. | ||
| And to give some context, I was talking with one of my Republican colleagues and friends not long ago, and I said, what would it take for you to stand up to Donald Trump? | ||
| And the immediate answer without a moment's thought was, how'd that work out for Adam Kensinger? | ||
| There is a deep fear of what a bully will do. | ||
| Rule my dad taught me was when the playground was never start a fight, but if the bully punches you, punch him back harder, because that keeps him from coming back. | ||
| Bullies are cowards at core. | ||
| So what am I afraid of? | ||
| That they are going to use data that they are legally not allowed to use to act as a bully. | ||
| So what does that mean for my home state of Illinois, where our Governor Pritzker has been very forceful in calling him out? | ||
| If they take control of the stop payments, does Illinois all of a sudden not get their Medicaid reimbursement money? | ||
| What does it do for someone, you know, we've already seen him take security details away from Liz Cheney, right? | ||
| While releasing people who attack cops out into the public, if they're willing to do that and threaten that, well, what might they do to someone who's on a fixed income but had the strength of their convictions? | ||
| What they know is that every time we have faced crises like these in our history, inevitably the movements that have toppled tyranny have been led by people who had gotten to a point where they had nothing left to lose. | ||
| The Parkland students who survived, the Mamie Tills of the world, right? | ||
| If they can find those people who have almost nothing left to lose and say, well, I'm going to cut off your Social Security payments if you step up. | ||
| I'm going to cut off your veterans' benefit payments. | ||
| I'm going to cut off your SNAP payments. | ||
| This is despotism, right? | ||
| And I think a part of our message to everybody is that fear is contagious, but so is courage. | ||
| And we want to make sure that people act with courage and the strength of their convictions and hope that what we're showing now maybe spreads to a few folks across the aisle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| You've alluded to this with the three Republicans, but just to get clarity, are you talking about a discharge petition? | ||
| And if so, could you tell me a little bit about the timeline of that? | ||
| And also, have you had any conversations with Republicans who you believe might be willing to sign on? | ||
| We're going to explore all legislative options available to us. | ||
| We know that this legislation needs to move and needs to move with urgency to protect the best interests of the American people. | ||
| And all it takes are three Republicans, only three, to partner with us. | ||
| And we can figure out the legislative vehicle to get this done in the House of Representatives. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You mentioned relying on litigation as one of the prongs to this approach to Musk and Trump writ large. | |
| What is your game plan if Trump does not abide by a court order, if they don't follow the direction of the court? | ||
| What do you do then? | ||
| That's a hypothetical. | ||
| The lawyers are working through those dynamics. | ||
| That's always a question that litigants have to confront and be prepared for. | ||
| But we've seen the Article III federal court system hold to date, and it's my expectation that the judiciary will continue to hold the line in the best interest of the American people, as will House Democrats in the United States Congress. | ||
| Third rule. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is there something that can be done in the more immediate moment? | |
| This bill seems to be either preemptive or preventative, or a combination of those two things. | ||
| What can stop Musk and this imposition of his perceived authority right now? | ||
| Is there any mechanism? | ||
| What we are seeing unfold is an unlawful power grab by an unelected and unaccountable billionaire puppet master who's pulling the strings of House Republicans and apparently the Trump administration. | ||
| So it's an all-hands-on-deck approach on behalf of hardworking American taxpayers. | ||
| Legislation, litigation, mobilization, communication with the American people, and that's what we're engaging in. | ||
| And in fact, on this particular issue, that's what you've seen occur. | ||
| People have showed up at the Department of Treasury. | ||
| We're moving litigation. | ||
| We're speaking about the threats to the American people presented by these extremists having access, think about this, to names, birth dates, social security, numbers, addresses, and bank account information. | ||
| And so this legislation is an important step In one of the arenas that will continue to be part of our all-hands-on-deck effort. | ||
| Last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You alluded to this a little bit earlier about Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune not stepping up and standing up to the president or Elon Musk. | |
| Do you feel like Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson are abdicating their constitutional authority by allowing the president and Elon Musk to overstep, especially when it comes to Congress's authority? | ||
| And do you think we're in a constitutional crisis? | ||
| Let me simply just say that House Democrats will continue to make clear to our Republican colleagues that we will work with anyone in this town to solve problems for the American people, to drive down the high cost of living, to secure the border while protecting dreamers, farm workers, and families, and keep our communities safe. | ||
| We'll work with anyone to bring the American dream to life and bring our jobs back home. | ||
| But that's not what we're seeing from House Republicans, and that's unfortunate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Will you withhold votes? | |
| Thank you, everyone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On government funding or the debt seal? | |
| Live today on C-SPAN, at 9 a.m. Eastern, the House will consider a bill to prohibit the President from suspending fracking on federal, state, or private lands in most cases. | ||
| On C-SPAN 2 at 9 a.m. Eastern, scholars and policy practitioners will discuss the state of democracy and the rule of law. | ||
| We expect to hear from a U.S. Senator on the issue. | ||
| You can also watch these events live on the free C-SPAN Now video app and online at our website, c-span.org. | ||
| Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live. | ||
| And then Democratic Illinois Congressman Brad Schneider, a member of the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committees, discusses Doge efforts and President Trump's Gaza plan. | ||
| And Republican Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Freedom Caucus, talks about House Republicans' approach to implementing President Trump's legislative agenda. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| Join the conversation. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's Friday, February 7th, 2025. | ||
| The House is in at 9 a.m. Eastern, which means we're with you for the next two hours. |