Westchester’s Congressman George Latimer, who represents the New York’s 16th congressional district, joined with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and dozens of other Democrats on Feb. 6 to introduce the Taxpayer Data Protection Act.
The legislation is described as a direct response to Elon Musk’s invasion of Americans’ privacy through the access he and his computer experts were given by the Trump Administration to the highly sensitive Treasury Department payment system, which has files of all Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, corporate identification numbers, tax returns, Medicare and Medicaid records and more.
“I have heard from hundreds of my constituents that they are concerned about Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal payment system and what it means for their sensitive information ad privacy,” Latimer said. “I am proud to support the Taxpayer Data Protection Act so that Congress can hold the Trump Administration accountable and prevent Musk from rifling through the private data of everyday Americans. We must act now.”
The legislation prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from allowing anyone to access the Treasury Department’s computers and data unless they are trusted employees of the Treasury Department, have a security clearance or otherwise have been qualified to access the systems such as in the case of a federal contractor. They also would have to sign an ethics agreement with the government.
The legislation also requires the Treasury Department’s inspector general to investigate and report to Congress on any incidents involving unauthorized access to the department’s computer data. It requires the inspector general to provide “a detailed description of the unauthorized use or access, including any actions the individual carried out; (B) a risk assessment of any threat to privacy, national security, cybersecurity, or the integrity of the applicable system as a result of such unauthorized use or access; and (C) a detailed description of any stopped payments during the unauthorized use or access.”
Both the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans, and it is too soon to tell whether they would be in favor of joining with the Democrats in the bill to protect the data of American’s that is held in government computers.
