A pair of House Democrats barged into House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office at the Capitol on Wednesday demanding answers on why Elon Musk’s government efficiency team has access to taxpayers’ data.

Reps. Judy Chu of California and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin barreled into the speaker’s office during a scheduled meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, Missouri Republican. 

A person who witnessed the interaction told The Washington Times that “in the face of incredibly rude, extremely aggressive and frankly unhinged behavior, the speaker was more than gracious and allowed the members into his personal office to hear their concerns.” 

The lawmakers said their main focus was to find out why Mr. Musk and his associates at the Department of Government Efficiency were able to gain access to the federal payment system at the Treasury Department, which has drawn sharp criticism and questions of its legality from congressional Democrats. 

The confrontation came as Democrats have been on a warpath to bar Mr. Musk from being allowed to meddle with government functions. An effort to subpoena the newly anointed special government employee was quashed by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee earlier in the day. 

Mr. Bessent had already left by the time the Democratic lawmakers got their impromptu meeting with the speaker, the Democrats said later. Ms. Moore said that their main goal was to find out why Mr. Musk and his associates had access to sensitive taxpayer data. 

“[Speaker Johnson] said he was trying to find out,” Ms. Moore said. “So I said ’that that was very stressful to me, that even you don’t know, and you’re the Speaker of the House then you have no idea what is happening.’” 

They raised concerns about the level of access Mr. Musk’s associates had, and what exactly they planned to do with the information, and warned that “all the data could have… been downloaded and put on thumb drives.”

The lawmakers said the speaker planned for a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the matter next week. 

“But next week this… could be seven days from now, how much could be stolen in that period of time, I think, a lot,” Ms. Chu said.

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.