US Democrats push legislation to 'fight back' against Trump policies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. congressional leaders will push legislation this week to "prevent unlawful meddling" by the newly created Department of Government Efficiency in the Treasury Department payroll system, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.

Billionaire Elon Musk chairs the DOGE group, which was tasked by President Donald Trump to identify fraud and waste in the government. Last week, the team gained access to the most sensitive payment systems at Treasury and, as Reuters reported, locked some employees out of their agency's computers.

"Whatever DOGE is doing, it is certainly not what democracy looks like, or has ever looked like in the grand history of this country, because democracy does not work in the shadows, democracy does not skirt the rule of law," Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries were set to hold a press conference on Tuesday afternoon on legislative proposals "to fight back" against the actions of the Trump administration.

Schumer said the legislation would "prevent everyone's records from being made available to a small group of people who can look at them at will, when this has always been kept secret and always been protected."

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Mark Porter)