U.S. Representative John Larson (D-CT), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, got riled up when he addressed the Committee this week.
As seen in the video below, Larson said: “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat or Unaffiliated, you ought to be concerned and shocked by the fact that your data, your personal information, has been hacked by people who were not vetted and are unaccountable and have placed this in a cloud, meaning in an insecure place that anyone could hack into.”
Larson added: “Imagine that the Social Security Administration has no idea what they’ve done with this data. And DOGE, we asked Elon Musk and DOGE to come before this Committee, on Ways and Means, and they refused to come.”
Larson slapped the dais, and yelled, “Why?! Because they believe they’re above the law! They don’t believe they are accountable to an equal branch of government and now they’ve gone in and taken the data that they were after.
“Why is Elon Musk after it? Because that data contains information about the $2.7 trillion of the people’s money that sends Social Security. And if I sound a little angry, it’s because I am, and every American ought to be angered and outraged that this is going on.”
Larson added: “It is morally wrong. It is not legal.”
I will not allow Elon Musk’s unvetted ‘DOGE’ 24-year-olds to rummage through your data. We just learned that they uploaded names, addresses, and more to a vulnerable cloud!
They’re going after your records because they’re after the benefits you earned. They need to be stopped! pic.twitter.com/NV5CGXIwbN
— Rep. John Larson (@RepJohnLarson) September 11, 2025
Amplifying the video on social media, Larson wrote: “I will not allow Elon Musk’s unvetted ‘DOGE’ 24-year-olds to rummage through your data. We just learned that they uploaded names, addresses, and more to a vulnerable cloud! They’re going after your records because they’re after the benefits you earned. They need to be stopped!”
Supporters of DOGE and the Trump administration who oppose Larson’s anger are responding and reflexively placing blame on the Biden administration for “ignoring” security measures including the Dashboard Act, which mandates transparency on such data. Comments include “If SSA’s systems were secure pre-2025, we wouldn’t need cleanup.”
Note: The Dashboard Act, which was first introduced by U.S. Representative Bill Foster (D-IL) in March 2022 (during the Biden administration), “requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to promulgate regulations relating to the disclosure of certain commercial data, and for other purposes.” The bill refers only to “commercial data” and “commercial users.”
The bill was reintroduced, again by Foster, on July 15, 2025, and has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker.
Prior to becoming a politician, Foster, who earned his PhD in physics from Harvard and worked for 22 years at Fermilab, participated in several projects including the design of equipment and data analysis software.