The star of the primary Delivering on Authorities Effectivity subcommittee listening to within the Home Wednesday was a person not in attendance: Elon Musk.
Democrats on the panel took intense purpose at Musk, who’s heading the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) initiative below President Trump, accusing him of breaking the legislation in his quest to get rid of spending he deems wasteful and analyze authorities funds.
“While we’re sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government, shuttering federal agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital to the safety and well-being of our communities and hacking our sensitive data systems,” rating member Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) mentioned. She repeatedly mentioned Musk ought to testify below oath earlier than the panel.
However Republicans on the subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), fiercely defended Musk’s actions even within the wake of federal judges making an attempt to cease a few of his actions.
Greene mentioned a ruling blocking DOGE from accessing the Treasury Division’s fee techniques was “absurd.”
And Greene issued a warning: “We will hold this judge and others who try to stop the will of the people and their elected leaders accountable.”
“The whole D.C. swamp is freaking out that the unelected officials from DOGE were allowed access to these systems. That makes no sense,” Greene mentioned. “Federal judges were not elected. The Treasury bureaucrats were not elected, and they have failed to fix the problem that is enabling American taxpayers to be robbed. So why not bring in skilled outside experts like private companies and private citizens who were successful in the real world to do everyday work that we need to get done here, like audits?”
The subject of the listening to was associated to that current DOGE effort, aimed toward “stamping at the scourge of improper payments and fraud.” And whereas Greene mentioned “this is not a time for political theater and partisan attacks,” the massive personalities on the panel got here via.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) took a swipe at Musk by making reference to Greene beforehand displaying censored intimate images of Hunter Biden, former President Biden’s son, in a listening to in 2023.
“In the last Congress, Chairwoman Greene literally showed a d‑‑‑ pic in an Oversight congressional hearing, so I thought I’d bring one as well,” Garcia mentioned.
A employees member for Garcia then pulled out a poster board with a photograph of the DOGE head. “Now this, of course, we know, is President Elon Musk,” the congressman mentioned.
Although some Democrats initially signaled openness to the concept of DOGE within the aftermath of the 2024 election, Musk and his effort have since turn out to be a significant supply of shock and a logo of every thing they dislike in regards to the Trump administration, leaving them little urge for food for working with the GOP on a lot of something in Congress.
“We should in no way be cooperating with House Republicans who want to shut down the Department of Education and destroy Medicare and Medicaid, and should not stand by as the richest man on the planet gives himself and his companies huge tax cuts, while the American people can [do] absolutely nothing,” Garcia mentioned.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) put the purpose of Democrats merely: “It is time for us to do our job and rein in this rogue actor known as Elon Musk.”
The listening to did get into some dialogue of the technicalities of improper funds.
Witness Haywood Talcove, the CEO for Authorities at LexisNexis Danger Options, estimated that implementing front-end id verification, eliminating self-certification and monitoring the again finish of the packages may save $1 trillion yearly throughout federal, state and native governments. That, he mentioned, may take a fraud ranking of round 20 % to round 5 %.
“The gravy train for a lot of these folks, it’s been on biscuit wheels and it’s about to run off the dadgum tracks,” quipped Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
However one other witness dinged the Trump administration’s actions for doubtlessly hurting efforts to fight waste, fraud and abuse by firing inspectors normal.
“It seems to me that if an administration were serious about wanting to root out waste, fraud and abuse, they would support and resource whistleblowers and inspectors general, they would not demonize them, and they would certainly not fire them en masse in an unlawful midnight purge,” mentioned Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of presidency affairs on the Challenge on Authorities Oversight.
Greene promised that within the coming days the subcommittee would launch a report with prompt legislative options to most of the issues recognized within the listening to.
And Stansbury signaled that extra huge moments may very well be coming in future hearings.
“We are going to have so much fun in this committee this Congress,” she mentioned.
