Five former US Treasury secretaries: Our democracy is under siege

Former secretaries express alarm at risks posed by Doge's meddling with federal payments.

- Robert E. Rubin, Lawrence H. Summers, Timothy F.Geithner, Jacob J. Lew and Janet L. Yellen

When we had the honour of being sworn in as the 70th, 71st, 75th, 76th and 78th secretaries of the Treasury, we took an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution.

Our roles were multifaceted. We sought to develop sound policy to advance the president's agenda and represent the economic interests of the United States on the world stage. But in doing that, we recognised that our most fundamental responsibility was the faithful execution of the laws and Constitution of the United States.

We were fortunate that during our tenures in office, no effort was made to unlawfully undermine the nation's financial commitments. Regrettably, recent reporting gives substantial cause for concern that such efforts are under way today.

The nation's payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of non-partisan career civil servants.

In recent days, that norm has been upended, and the roles of these non-partisan officials have been compromised by political actors from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge. One has been appointed fiscal assistant secretary a post that for the prior eight decades had been reserved exclusively for civil servants to ensure impartiality and public confidence in the handling and payment of federal funds.

These political actors have not been subject to the same rigorous ethics rules as civil servants, and one has explicitly retained his role in a private company, creating at best the appearance of financial conflicts of interest.

They lack training and experience to handle private, personal data like Social Security numbers and bank account information.