Neal, Larson Demand Full Criminal Investigation into ‘DOGE’ Leak of Private Records to Musk Associates and Immediate Congressional Action to Safeguard Americans’ Privacy
Washington, DC-- Today, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (MA-01) and Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John B. Larson (CT-01) released the following statement after the Social Security Administration admitted in court that ‘DOGE’ employees tried to hand over sensitive personal records to an unnamed advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results,” traded confidential data on an unapproved private server, and sent confidential information on about 1,000 Americans to Elon Musk’s “top lieutenant.”
“We have been warning about privacy violations at Social Security and calling out Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE’ for months,” said Neal and Larson. “Elon Musk and his ‘DOGE’ believe they are above the law and refused to appear before Congress. Republicans have blocked every effort to hold this Administration accountable, voting down our resolutions demanding documents, even changing House Rules to shield ‘DOGE’ from accountability and protect themselves from having to take another vote on the issue. Today, we learned alarming news that proves the brave whistleblower who came forward in August was right. ‘DOGE’ signed an agreement to share Social Security data with an organization trying to undermine state election results, sent 1,000 Americans’ personal records directly to one of Elon Musk’s top consiglieres, and shared the confidential data of Americans on a private server. The ‘DOGE’ appointees engaged in this scheme – who were never brought before Congress for approval or even publicly identified – must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for these abhorrent violations of the public trust.
“The time for talk is over. Chairman Smith and every Republican on the Ways and Means Committee must break their silence on what could very well be the largest data breach in our nation’s history and as we have now learned, may have implications for election security,” they continued. "Democrats have a bill to safeguard Americans’ privacy by blocking political appointees like Elon Musk and his ‘DOGE’ minions from accessing sensitive data systems at Social Security. Standing by and doing nothing is a dereliction of duty to the American people this Congress is sworn to serve.”
Last March, Ranking Members Neal and Larson introduced the Protecting Americans’ Social Security Data Act to block political appointees, like Elon Musk and his ‘DOGE,’ from accessing sensitive data systems at the Social Security Administration. It would also establish privacy requirements in law for beneficiary data and strengthen oversight and civil penalties for any privacy and disclosure violations of Social Security beneficiaries’ personal information.
Larson demanded a markup and vote on the bill in June when the Supreme Court allowed ‘DOGE’ access to sensitive data at Social Security. After a whistleblower report in August confirmed that ‘DOGE’ had copied the personal information of 300 million Americans on to a vulnerable cloud, Larson and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal called for immediate hearings and a full committee investigation on the report.
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