Wyden Opposes Treasury Nominees

Wyden Opposes Treasury Nominees

As Prepared for Delivery

Today the Committee will vote on three nominees. Each of them, if confirmed, will help oversee the agency responsible for every single taxpayer dollar the government receives.

Trump and his cronies have intentionally turned the federal government into a black box when it comes to transparency. Earlier this year, Elon Musk and his DOGE lackeys gained access to Treasury's internal payment systems, which houses a trove of highly-sensitive taxpayer data. We still don't know exactly who has access to that information, or what they're doing with it. But one thing is certain: taxpayer money is being moved around without any transparency or accountability. It's being spent on whatever Donald Trump wants to spend it on. And every single nominee the Committee will vote on today has been hand-picked by Trump to help him do it.

The American people voted for cheaper egg prices and beef.

They did not vote for nearly 1 trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid so our Republican colleagues could cut taxes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

They did not vote for their health insurance premiums to double.

And they sure didn't vote for an authoritarian takeover of our cities, including my hometown of Portland, funded by their tax dollars.

The Trump administration is using the American people's hard-earned money however it wants, accountability be damned.

I'll turn now to today's nominees.

Jonathan Greenstein is nominated to be Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Finance.

Donald Korb is nominated to serve as Chief Counsel for the IRS. Mr. Korb will be integral to the IRS's plan to share taxpayer information with DHS to help the administration target immigrant communities.

Lastly, Derek Theurer is nominated to serve as Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs. Just yesterday, the Treasury Department announced that Mr. Theurer would also be performing the duties of Deputy Treasury Secretary. Mr. Theurer hasn't even been confirmed for the position he's nominated for, and Trump has given him another high-ranking job within this administration.

The responsibility of the head of the Treasury Legislative Affairs office is to be responsive to Congress. Having the same person in charge of Legislative Affairs also serve as Deputy Secretary guarantees that Trump's Treasury will be even less responsive to Congress than it already is. And it further demonstrates this administration's disdain for congressional authority.

Each of these nominees has had the opportunity to show this committee - and the American people - that if confirmed, they would stand up to Donald Trump's dangerous and harmful agenda. An agenda that for ten months has made life harder and more expensive for working families and wreaked havoc on our economy. This administration is more focused on promoting unqualified yes-men than public servants devoted to helping the American people.

I'll close with this. The other breaking news this week was Donald Trump's decision to give another job title to Social Security Commissioner, Frank Bisignano. "CEO" of the Internal Revenue Service, making Mr. Bisignano just a few job titles shy of Marco Rubio, who I believe holds the record. Let me be clear: the IRS doesn't have a CEO. It should have a Commissioner dedicated to making sure American taxpayers get their refunds on time and going after wealthy tax cheats.

Mr. Bisignano has spent his time as Social Security Commissioner concocting new ways to cut Americans' hard-earned Social Security benefits and privatize the program. There is no doubt in my mind that if granted access to our country's treasury system and taxpayer dollars, he will do more damage that can't be undone.

The American people deserve stable, trustworthy leadership at the IRS and Treasury Department.

I have no reason to believe that the nominees being voted on today won't blindly follow their marching orders from Trump to trample over the constitution and help enrich his friends. Just like everyone else he's surrounded himself with.

I urge my colleagues to vote no on these nominees.

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