Rep. Doggett Seeks to Safeguard Americans’ Privacy Rights From Trump
Contact: Luis.BFaz@mail.house.gov
(202) 494-4620
Washington, D.C.— U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Ranking Member of the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee, renewed efforts to safeguard Americans’ most confidential data collected by the federal government from misuse by the Trump regime.
“As he grasps for more and more power, Donald Trump has been pursuing an unprecedented project to combine all federal data on every American into a master file on every citizen,” said Rep. Doggett. “Essentially a digital ID, a dossier, tracking where you live, where you work, your earnings, your bank accounts, your health information, even child support agreements – and much more. This would permit him to target opponents and manipulate others.”
With House Republicans having delayed consideration of his June 11thResolution of Inquiry, which was joined by every Democratic Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Doggett forced a vote on a similar inquiry with an amendment offered to H.R. 2716, the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. He would require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to produce to the Committee all records and communications pertaining to SSA’s sharing of Americans’ private data with Palantir Technologies, Inc. for the purposes of developing a centralized federal database of Americans’ information. Republicans have twice resorted to extraordinary measures to block the Committee from considering the resolution, opting to keep Americans in the dark about who has access to their personal data. While the amendment was defeated 16 to 24 on a party-line vote, Doggett has committed to continue pressuring the need for answers on this dangerous Trump plan.
You can read the amendment text here.
To watch Rep. Doggett’s remarks, click here.
Demand Progress, a group that helped lead the efforts to successfully block the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) endorsed Rep. Doggett’s amendment.
“The American people deserve to know how their Social Security data is being used, especially if it’s being used for an Orwellian government tracking system,” said Demand Progress Policy Director Emily Peterson-Cassin.
Rep. Doggett’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
Donald Trump has been pursuing an unprecedented project to combine all federal data on every American into a master file on every citizen. Essentially a digital ID, a dossier, tracking where you live, where you work, your earnings, your bank accounts, your health information, even child support agreements, and much more to obtain more insight into the extent of this massive project, this massive invasion of our privacy by someone who daily professes his desire for revenge and persecution of anyone that doesn't laud him as the great leader that he thinks he is.
I introduced months ago a resolution of inquiry. It was joined by every Democratic member of this committee. Our resolution simply asked the administration to turn over all materials related to this massive data aggregation effort and its chosen contractor, Palantir, a company that one Silicon Valley executive once accused of, quote, building the infrastructure of the police state.
And that's precisely what we are concerned with preventing. With a president whose top priority is revenge, personal enrichment for himself and his family, and self-glorification, this is deeply concerning.
But beyond furthering the machinery of a police state and beyond enabling Trump to target his enemies, this centralization of data creates immense risk for every American family. It takes some of the same confidential information that's held anywhere in the federal government, Social Security earnings, histories, bank account, Medicare and Medicaid records, tax data, and it places it into a master file that is vulnerable to any malicious actor or outside threat. There's reason to be concerned about exposing our personal data to hackers.
And there's more reason, given the fact that a whistleblower has divulged that Social Security records of 300 million Americans were uploaded by DOGE into an unsecure cloud environment that lacked adequate security. Internal federal reviews have found alarming weaknesses in Palantir's systems. One internal U.S. Army government report described that platform as, quote, very high-risk warning.
So we're exposing ourselves not only to the dangers of Donald Trump, but the dangers of hackers everywhere. And while Palantir denies these findings, they raise alarming concerns about how the most sensitive data could soon be linked together in one place. Despite the gravity of these issues, House Republicans don't want to deal with them.
And so they found up, came up with a nifty way to deal with it. On two different occasions with rules that they have passed on totally unrelated subjects, they have simply postponed the consideration of our resolutions of inquiry. So that they can't be considered about these data.
I do want to acknowledge one Republican, Warren Davidson, who has said Trump's arrangement with Palantir is, quote, dangerous, saying, quote, when you start combining all these data points on individuals into one database, it essentially creates a digital ID and a history that shows that power will be abused. He is correct about that. And that's what we're inquiring about.
And here is something notable. Palantir has met with my staff and they say they support this resolution. So if it's Palantir you're concerned about and they say they have nothing to hide, then support this amendment.
It is a vote that would be consistent with their claims. This amendment offers one small but meaningful window into how this secretive project operates. It would require disclosure of how Social Security data has been used or misused in creating a digital ID on every American.
Safeguard privacy of Americans with a little transparency, a little sunlight by adopting this reasonable amendment. I yield back.