During Wednesday’s House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) discussed Democrat complaints surrounding Elon Musk and DOGE.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The committee will come to order.
00:03Welcome to today's markup of two resolutions of the inquiry from committee Democrats.
00:09Democrats are attempting to undermine the critical work being done under President Trump
00:15to root out waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government, all in an effort to
00:20save taxpayer dollars and make important programs work better, more efficient, and more effective
00:27for the American people.
00:28My Democrat colleagues claim their concerns are about process and careful vetting, but
00:33the truth is that they have never found an ounce of government fat that they're willing
00:38to trim.
00:40DOJ has a clear mission to end the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
00:46At the Treasury Department, employees are cleaning the Do Not Pay list to ensure taxpayer
00:53money does not end up in the wrong hands.
00:56Surely we can all agree that terrorists, criminals, fraudsters, dead people, they don't deserve
01:04taxpayer dollars.
01:06I'd like to remind my colleagues of the facts.
01:09DOJ employees are government employees.
01:13DOJ was authorized by the Senate-confirmed Treasury Secretary to access certain Treasury
01:21payment systems on a read-only basis.
01:25Just last week, President Trump reiterated that department leadership has the final say
01:34over the makeup and activities of their agencies.
01:38This is not a case of DOJ employees running wild.
01:41The Treasury Department and White House even signed a memorandum of understanding preventing
01:47DOJ from accessing personal taxpayer data.
01:51A DOJ employee can only see taxpayer data that is disconnected from any personal identifiable
01:58information.
01:59This is the same level of access already granted to some academic researchers and IT professionals.
02:06At the IRS, DOJ is performing a similar mission of helping the agency get back to the basics.
02:13We must end the Biden administration's focus on auditing more middle-class Americans and
02:19shift back to administering the tax code.
02:23The agency has struggled for years to perform basic tasks, like answering the phone.
02:31Every American who has interacted with the agency knows that.
02:35We don't have to tell them that.
02:39If DOJ can reform the IRS and make IT improvements to cut wait times, why is that a bad thing?
02:50My Democrat colleagues have also conveniently ignored longstanding concerns with the lack
02:55of guardrails surrounding IRS employees accessing the agency's data systems.
03:01As of 2017, the IRS had been unable to produce a complete list of every agent who has access
03:10to the integrated data retrieval system or individual master file systems.
03:16Where was the interest?
03:18Where was the interest for my Democrat colleagues in taxpayer security then?
03:24No hard evidence has been presented that accusations of illegal access to taxpayer information
03:30by DOJ employees are true or based in fact.
03:35On the contrary, during a recent oversight subcommittee hearing, a witness testified
03:40there was no evidence for Democrat claims of illegal access or illegal disclosure of
03:47taxpayer data.
03:49All Democrats have the rumor and hearsay.
03:54For a party obsessed with quote misinformation, it appears they don't mind spreading their
04:00own.
04:01It seems Democrats are only interested in oversight when they are out of power.
04:06When Democrats are in power, they do nothing about taxpayer privacy.
04:10Instead, they are choosing to drum up false accusations.
04:15At its heart, this ROI is nothing more than a sad attempt by Democrats to throw sand in
04:21the gears of the Trump administration's important work to expose the waste, fraud, and abuse
04:27in our government.
04:28When Americans voted for President Trump, they sent a message that they want Washington
04:33to stop spending money on stuff that does nothing to serve the people.
04:39Every year, the federal government makes up to $521 billion in improper payments, according
04:48to a recent GAO study.
04:51No one can argue that we don't need to take serious and swift action to root out that
04:57waste.
04:58DOJ is fulfilling the mandate to rein in an unaccountable and bloated federal bureaucracy.
05:04This request for information is a nothing more than manufactured outrage that does
05:09nothing to serve the American people.
05:12I now recognize the Ranking Member from Massachusetts, Mr. Neal, for his opening statement.