Acting Ranking Member Lynch Moves to Subpoena Musk to Answer for His Reckless Actions As a “Special Government Employee”
Washington, D.C. (June 5, 2025)— Below is an opening statement, as prepared for delivery, from Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Acting Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The remarks were delivered at today’s full committee hearing on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the federal government, where Acting Ranking Member Lynch motioned to subpoena Elon Musk to testify before the Committee. Republicans suspended the hearing as they struggled to bring their Members to the hearing room to vote.
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Acting Ranking Member Stephen Lynch
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
“The Federal Government in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”
June 5, 2025
Thank you for calling this hearing on the use of Artificial Intelligence in our government.
Optimizing the federal government’s use of technology has long been a bipartisan priority of this Committee. Our late colleague and friend, Gerry Connolly, was a steadfast champion for using modern, secure technology to improve the delivery of government services, strengthen oversight, and enhance public trust. We continue his fight on this and so many other critical challenges facing our government.
We cannot sit here, however, and have the traditionally bipartisan conversation about federal IT modernization without acknowledging the fact that the Trump Administration, Elon Musk, and DOGE are leading technology initiatives that threaten the privacy and security of all Americans and undermine our government and the vital services it provides to red states and blue states alike.
Musk may say he has stepped away from his role in the federal government, but his recklessness will continue to have devastating consequences for America for years, possibly decades, to come.
Today, we’ll work to better understand the disaster and danger the Trump Administration has created by turning our government over to his biggest campaign donor and people who are more interested in self-enrichment than public service.
Since President Trump’s inauguration, he has given Elon Musk free rein to terrorize our civil servants and drive more than 275,000 of them from their jobs serving the American people.
His DOGE team has done this so capriciously that they have had to go back to people they fired and beg them to return to their jobs serving our veterans, maintaining our nuclear stockpile, and fighting bird flu.
At the Social Security Administration, whistleblowers have told us that the agency has lost so many critical information technology and support staff that very few of the remaining workers even know how to handle errors or alerts in their systems. This could mean missed checks and millions of seniors and people with disabilities losing access to their financial lifeline.
While they purged the federal government of expertise, Elon Musk and DOGE reportedly fed sensitive government data—including Americans’ private, personal information—into unvetted and unaccountable AI software.
They also reportedly deployed Musk’s own generative AI chatbot—called Grok—to consume government data and assist with sensitive government decisions. Grok has even been deployed onto systems at the Department of Homeland Security, despite the fact that it is not approved for use.
Musk has been operating without any oversight whatsoever while posing a very real risk of violating security and privacy laws, accessing confidential information about his competitors, and using valuable federal datasets to turbocharge his own AI system, which would mean more money and more power for Mr. Musk. The American people deserve answers.
Musk and DOGE have put the most personal data of every American at risk. Cybersecurity experts, like Mr. Schneier who is with us today, are sounding the alarm that the holes DOGE has created in our nation’s cybersecurity are gaping and pervasive.
And now, in this horrifyingly insecure environment, the Trump Administration wants to centralize all of your data into one massive database, making it even easier for bad actors to hack. And, of course, they’ve contracted with a big private tech company owned by one of President Trump’s billionaire supporters to do it.
Four months ago, Democrats moved to subpoena Elon Musk to provide public testimony to this Committee. At the time, our Republican colleagues complained that their constituents were calling their offices and showing up to town halls to yell at them about Musk.
Well, Americans’ concerns have only deepened since then. From his erratic purge of the federal workforce to his exploitation of sensitive taxpayer data to the cybersecurity nightmare he has created and the horrifying surveillance state we fear he has built, the American people demand answers from Elon Musk.
I believe, too, that my Republican colleagues should have some questions of their own for Mr. Musk.
Recent allegations have left Americans wondering if he was potentially under the influence of drugs while at the very heart of the Trump Administration’s most consequential and sensitive decisions.
It is worth investigating whether one of the President’s most influential advisers was under the influence of heavy drugs while upending hundreds of thousands of American lives, breaking government services beyond repair, and handing out death sentences for hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world who relied on American foreign aid and medical care for survival—most of whom were children.
If this does not move my Republican colleagues, maybe they just want to hear from Musk on why he called their bill to cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to billionaires a “disgusting abomination” and a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.”
Or why he’s spent the last 24 hours leveraging his social media platform to “kill the bill.”
Or maybe they want to know why Musk has said that his next round of firings might be targeted at Republican politicians who have not toed the line on his priorities.
Regardless of your motivations, Democrats and Republicans alike simply cannot allow Elon Musk to escape accountability for his actions. He has dismantled our government, endangered Americans, and weaponized public service for his own financial gain.
I ask my Republican colleagues to support Oversight Democrats today in moving that this Committee subpoena Elon Musk to answer for his actions. All of us deserve answers on behalf of the people we represent.
Therefore, pursuant to clause 2(k)(6) of House Rule XI, I move that we subpoena Elon Musk to testify before this Committee.
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