TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S DISMANTLING OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S DISMANTLING OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2025)] [House] [Pages H695-H697] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S DISMANTLING OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I am a stand-in. This is actually Marcy Kaptur's Special Order hour. She is tied up in a hearing, so I will try to do my best to lay it out. She was going to speak for 7 minutes on the issues of the Trump administration's dismantling of the Federal Government and the hiring of, or I guess the acquiescence of, Elon Musk as the principle agent of destruction. What has happened over the last 17 days is an extraordinary display of contempt for the American Government. If you think about this, Mr. Speaker, in its totality, right off the start, all funding stopped. What does that mean to the programs that Americans depends upon? Healthcare, education, research, infrastructure programs, for what purpose was that done? Perhaps it was in order to set up the next step which is the dismantling of extraordinary important programs for me and for my wife. More than almost 58 years ago, we participated in a USAID program which at that time was just 4 years old set up by Kennedy. It was a vaccination program, an effort of the United Nations, funded by the American Government through USAID, to eradicate smallpox. We spent 1 month in rural Ethiopia doing vaccinations. As our life worked on, we continued working to provide the necessary services so that people could survive, the Food for Peace program. Patti actually ran that when she was at the USDA as an assistant administrator. The famine camps, we were there. We saw the children who were dying of starvation. We saw the American grain arrive. I remember clearly one evening at the famine camp in Ethiopia in the mid-eighties, a woman literally in rags, was picking up individual grains of wheat that had spilled from the bags trying to fill a cup so that there would be enough food that she could take back to her children. [[Page H696]] They died that night of starvation. The richest man in the world invested over $250 million in a Presidential campaign, and he was given the keys to the American Government and the opportunity to destroy things that he didn't like. {time} 1130 USAID not only providing the necessary food to allow people to continue to live, but also to thrive through agricultural programs and economic development programs around the world. People who didn't have the opportunity were given the opportunity through the generosity of the American people. Mr. Speaker, when someone has the greatest wealth of any individual and seems to think they have the right to destroy lives, before our President gives someone the power to do that, I would ask the individual to get on their private jet or to get on Air Force One and go to one of the famine camps in southern Sudan and hold a starving child in their arms. The individual should look at the extended belly, the vacant stare, the fact that they are not even able to hold up their head and know that the American people have developed an emergency supplemental food program that can revive that child. After that, come back and decide whether to put USAID into the wood chipper. If anyone has just a modicum of humanity and a sense of compassion, they would never, never ever take USAID and destroy it. There are other programs out there, and we will be talking about these other programs as my colleagues join us here on the floor. There is the Department of Education and the Labor Department. Giving the richest man in the world the keys to the U.S. Treasury? What is going on here? What information has been gathered? Where did that information go? What will it be used for? Who owns that information now: the U.S. Government, or Elon Musk? These are serious questions. My colleagues and I will raise these questions. Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Casten. 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. Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Casten for his comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz). Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank my fellow appropriator and friend, Marcy Kaptur, for initiating and hosting this Special Order hour. I thank my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), for standing in for the gentlewoman because it is incredibly disturbing that we must come together to condemn what should be inherently obvious. Elon Musk was elected by no one, confirmed by no one, and is accountable to no one. Yet, President Trump allows this conflict- riddled billionaire to rifle through Americans' highly sensitive records and attack the public servants who look out for all of us. I have never witnessed such utter contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. It is clear who is running this White House. It is Elon Musk, whose nonstop lies would leave human rights groups in Cuba and Venezuela out to dry and victims of famine and natural disasters left to starve or die. Donald Trump is allowing Musk to illegally slash our efforts to counter dictators and protect democracy, the man with billions on the line in China. Trump and Musk are gutting agencies that are investigating Musk's companies. Is that coincidence? All the while, Donald Trump ignores what he committed to prioritizing throughout his campaign: making everyday life more affordable for everyone. Mr. Speaker, this chaos crew in the White House is rocking the faith of Americans. It is alienating allies and destabilizing our businesses. It is trashing our ability to honor our commitments and fulfill the basic functions of government. My constituents are angry and afraid, and they should be. It is understandable. Musk and his minions will gut any program that doesn't line their own pockets. These cruel, reckless cuts built on lies and illegal funding freezes will devastate the children, veterans, and seniors that we Democrats fight for every day, and worse. All that this chaotic Republican rip- off will do is raise grocery prices and healthcare costs for our families. While Musk steals children's Social Security numbers, Trump is busy enacting policies that will raise prices on everything from prescription drugs to affordable