Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) barged into House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office unscheduled on Wednesday and challenged him about Elon Musk’s team gaining access to a sensitive payment system at the Treasury Department.

Their intrusion, amid an escalation of Democratic backlash against Musk’s sweep through the federal government, came shortly after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrived at the speaker’s office to discuss how to implement President Donald Trump’s tax agenda.

However, Moore said that Bessent was not in the room when she and Chu confronted Johnson.

“Gwen Moore forced her way in there, and then I got to go in right behind her,” Chu told reporters. “And she was already confronting Speaker Johnson about Treasury Secretary Bessent and the stealing of Americans’ private information, tax information that should never be stolen and given to this billionaire Elon Musk.”

Bessent, who was in Johnson’s office to meet with House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), gave members of Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the payments system last weekend. The system controls trillions of dollars in payments for Social Security, tax refunds and myriad other government functions.

The Treasury Department told lawmakers Tuesday that Musk’s team currently has “read-only” access to the system and that their review “is not resulting” in any suspensions of or delays to disbursements approved by federal agencies.

A person who witnessed the episode at Johnson’s office denounced Chu’s and Moore’s actions.

“In the face of incredibly rude, extremely aggressive and frankly unhinged behavior, the Speaker was more than gracious and allowed the members into his personal office to hear their concerns,” said the person, who asked not to be named to freely discuss the matter.

A key ultraconservative holdout said Wednesday that enough progress has been made in stalled House budget talks that a blueprint needed to unlock President Donald Trump domestic policy plans could be released by the end of the week.

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina is one of several Freedom Caucus members who sit on the House Budget Committee and have so far rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s initial budget plan last week — causing GOP leaders to scramble for hundreds of billions more in spending cuts.

“We’re working on full text,” Norman said in a brief interview Wednesday. “But I will tell you, it’s promising, what we’re doing.”

Republicans are still working through deeply complex policy questions — including weighing how much in costly tax cuts the hard-liners will support. GOP leaders are acknowledging they may need to dial back some of the tax provisions to get the resolution through the Budget Committee, with senior House Republicans privately skeptical a final budget resolution can come together by Friday. They’re hopeful, instead, for next week.

Johnson’s entire timeline for passage of the Trump agenda faced near-collapse earlier this week due to the right-wing backlash. But Norman signaled he’s so far inclined to support the reworked budget resolution if “Trump’s on board with it” and if it accomplishes “what Trump wants to do” on border security, deportation operations and other measures.

Amid the House infighting, Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he would move forward with his own, competing blueprint next week.

Johnson said Wednesday he was “hoping” to present a revised budget plan to his conference by the end of this week. He also urged Graham to “understand the reality of the house” as “a very different chamber with very different dynamics.”

“The House needs to lead this if we’re going to have success,” he said. “We feel very optimistic we’re getting there, and we’re going to find that equilibrium point and get this done.”

Congressional Hispanic Caucus members met privately with immigration advocacy groups Tuesday night to strategize how to counter President Donald Trump’s executive actions that have already altered the immigration system.

The goals of the meeting, which were outlined in a document obtained by POLITICO, include increasing immigration legal defense, fundraising for the influx of legal needs and messaging efforts to counter anti-immigrant rhetoric from Republicans. It’s the latest sign that Democrats are scrambling over a strategy to fight Trump as they look on from the congressional minority.

Lawmakers and immigration groups want to focus on “families, farmworkers and Dreamers,” something Democrats on Capitol Hill have been reiterating since Trump took office last month. Trump has signed multiple executive actions concerning immigration and the House GOP has been working to tee up a tough-on-migrants legislative agenda.

Recent executive orders include undoing Biden-era border policies, drastically changing the asylum system and targeting existing legal pathways. Democrats continue to reckon with their 2024 loss, after Republicans aggressively attacked them over immigration and border policies and Democrats struggled to mount an effective response. Trump has continued that messaging strategy from the White House, blitzing the airwaves and social media feeds with immigration enforcement actions.