Administration

Washington, D.C. (May 13, 2025)— Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Department of State (State) Acting Inspector General Arne B. Baker requesting an investigation into reports that the White House is promoting Elon Musk’s Starlink communication services to countries facing Trump’s disastrous tariffs, and that countries want to license Starlink to promote their standing in trade talks with the U.S.  This poses an obvious conflict of interest for Musk, who is currently a Special Government Employee of the United States and has so far refused to disclose the extent of his rampant conflicts of interest, given that he owns and operates numerous companies that survive on government contracts at the same time that he wields unprecedented influence over such contracts and federal spending via his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Washington, D.C. (May 13, 2025)—Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins requesting documents and information following troubling reporting that former VA staff tasked with terminating employees and reorganizing the agency workforce were forced to sign agreements pledging not to disclose information on employee communications, agreements likely to “extend beyond their termination.”  The implementation of these nondisclosure agreements could prevent federal employees from disclosing violations of waste, fraud, and abuse to Congress. 

Washington, D.C. (May 9, 2025)—Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian demanding information and documents related to GSA’s reported plans to award a contract for a $25 million pilot program to Ramp, a company with zero federal contracting experience that is backed by prominent Trump supporters, Trump family connections, and allies of Elon Musk.

Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, issued a joint statement following the announcement of David Steiner, a FedEx board member and former Waste Management CEO, as the next Postmaster General of the United States by the U.S. Postal Board of Governors:

Washington, D.C. (May 1, 2025)— Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Lori Trahan, who previously announced an effort to update the Privacy Act of 1974 to better protect Americans’ sensitive data, demanded information from the National Labor Relations Board regarding potential violations of federal privacy laws by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Washington, D.C. (May 1, 2025)—Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Charles Ezell, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), opposing OPM’s plan to strip civil servants of protections to escalate the Administration’s political purge of the civil service.