Congressional Democrats are planning to introduce legislation to restrict access to the Treasury’s payment system, which houses Americans’ data used to send out tax refunds, Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, loans and other government payments.
The Treasury Department on Friday provided billionaire Elon Musk and his associates at the Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system, which the Democrats said was suspicious because DOGE’s plans for the information were unknown.
“Donald Trump basically handed DOGE the Social Security data of virtually every American citizen,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, noting the access was provided without transparency or guardrails. “It’s like putting a tiger into a petting zoo and hoping for the best.”
He said they were drafting legislation to prevent “unlawful meddling” in the payment system, which executes over a billion transactions a year, collectively worth more than $6 trillion. He said Senate Democrats would partner with their House counterparts.
Earlier Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to his caucus that mentioned plans for legislation to prevent access to “highly confidential and personal information related to Social Security and Medicare recipients, taxpayers, households, nonprofits, businesses and federal contractors.”
Democrats are the minority party in both chambers and can’t bring legislation to the floor, but they are looking to drum up public sentiment to pressure congressional Republicans to act.
“It is up to them whether they want to get out the fire hoses or sit in the fire,” said Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat and chair of the Appropriations Committee.
Ms. Murray said Mr. Musk especially should not have access to the payment system given his “expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China and an industry ax to grind against perceived enemies.”
“The world’s richest man has vowed to cut off funding that helps the least among us,” she said. “Think about that. And next, think about how many dollars he himself makes from government contracts. And the Trump administration is handing the keys of the Treasury to him. It does not get more blatantly corrupt than that.”
In addition to introducing legislation, Democrats are planning to use procedural tools to slow down consideration of Mr. Trump’s nominees as another form of protest to the payment system matter and other executive actions they oppose.
“We need to use every tool we have to fight back, and in the Senate, we can start by saying no to dangerous Trump nominees like Tulsi Gabbard and Russ Vought,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat.
Mr. Musk posted on X, the social media site he owns, that the people who are upset about DOGE’s access to the government payment system are “aiding, abetting and receiving fraudulent payments.”
“The only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to follow the payment flows and pause suspicious transactions for review,” he said.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee that has oversight of Treasury, said if Mr. Trump cared about improper payments, he wouldn’t have fired the inspectors general of government agencies who identify fraud and mistakes.
“The Musk hatchet brigade has infiltrated a gold mine of data that every foreign spy and every corrupt actor would love to see,” Mr. Wyden said. “It is a prescription for nightmares.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.