Things did not go smoothly on Wednesday for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who testified before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas was undeterred by Bessent’s robotic demeanor and pressed him on the legality and nature of data privacy and sharing between the Treasury Department and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which still exists despite Musk’s departure from the Trump administration.
Bessent, unwilling to provide a direct answer, tangled with Doggett, who threw in a joke about reports that Bessent and Musk’s inability to get along led to a screaming match in the Oval Office.
Bessent: There seems to be a misunderstanding among many people on your side of the aisle on what DOGE is. DOGE employees—
Doggett: I understand you had some misunderstanding about it, and Mr. Musk, yourself, but let me ask you again—just simply on the question I’m asking: Are you sharing any of this data with DOGE without congressional authorization?
Bessent: As I said, we are following all of the laws.
Doggett: Thank you. I would have appreciated an answer to my question, but I will yield back since my time has expired.
When he’s not ignoring the human toll of his administration’s immigration raids, Bessent has shown a deep unwillingness to answer simple questions about the Trump administration’s policies. Back in May, appearing before the House Oversight Committee, he struggled to answer straightforward questions about who pays for tariffs: consumers or corporations.
Recently, a federal judge in New York ruled that DOGE employees at the Treasury could access sensitive Treasury data as long as they were vetted and trained first.