Ranking Member Stansbury’s Opening Remarks at DOGE Republicans’ Hateful Hearing Designed to Divide and Distract from Trump’s Disastrous First 100 Days
Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2025). Below is an opening statement from Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. The remarks were delivered at today's hateful hearing; the topic of which was completely outside of the Subcommittee's jurisdiction, in which Chairwoman Greene and DOGE Republicans attempted to divide and distract from President Trump's chaotic, corrupt, and costly first 100 Days and their own disastrous budget bill that would raise Americans' cost of living and slash Medicaid and food assistance by more than $1 trillion.
Opening Statement
Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury
Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency
"Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports"
May 7, 2025
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. As you can see, it's going to be an interesting hearing today.
Welcome to the Oversight Committee, and in particular, the DOGE Subcommittee. I do want to say welcome to our guests and to your families. We do appreciate all of you coming here to tell your stories, but I want to make clear that this hearing is actually not about oversight or DOGE, but about spreading hate and using trans lives to distract from the real issues that Americans are facing, from attacks on our economy, to attacks on our democracy, to attacks on our communities.
So let's call this hearing what it actually is: it's about bullying trans kids and members of the trans community to distract from the failed policies of the Trump Administration, the failed policies and exploitation of this DOGE Subcommittee, and the GOP's own cruel agenda that is happening right now here on Capitol Hill as they're trying to gut Medicaid, gut food assistance, and gut environmental programs to give tax breaks to billionaires because that is actually what's going on behind these doors all around us.
So, as the Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, let me start by saying to everyone in the trans and LGBTQ+ community who might be watching or listening today, that we see you, we love you, we respect you, we are fighting for you, and we will fight back against this hateful agenda.
Now, I do want to point out here at the outset that we are, in fact, in the Oversight Subcommittee on "Delivering on Government Efficiency" and this is a committee here in Congress that was created this year by the GOP supposedly to address government efficiency, and this hearing literally has nothing to do with that.
In fact, it has nothing to do with anything that falls under the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's jurisdiction. This hearing is so irrelevant to this committee, it's just a complete distraction from what is actually happening in Congress right now. So let's review what this subcommittee is actually supposed to be working on, since my friends seem to have forgotten that in their own rule; rule six of this committee, this subcommittee, shall "have oversight jurisdiction over the federal civil service, including compensation, classification benefits, federal property disposal, government reorganization and operations, transparency, performance, grants management and accounting measures generally".
That is the jurisdiction of this committee. And I don't know about any of you, but I don't see anything in here about sports, the Olympics, Title IX, fencing, and certainly nothing about policing the bodies of Americans. And frankly, hearings of this subcommittee have become so divorced from reality or anything resembling oversight in the jurisdiction of this committee.
It's basically turned into a political campaign ad, as you just saw on these TVs. That's what this subcommittee has devolved into. And frankly, I think many of us expected that that's where we would end up.
But meanwhile, Donald Trump is letting Elon Musk, his cabinet secretaries, and OMB to continue to dismantle our federal agencies to hack our private data, they're firing veterans, teachers, and firefighters. They're trying to break Social Security and the VA. There is literally no oversight happening here in this committee under the GOP. In fact, my colleagues have failed to bring even a single administration witness here to this committee. They haven't brought Elon Musk, they haven't brought a cabinet secretary.
They haven't brought anyone to this committee to answer to the lawless and immoral behavior that's happening inside the administration or anything that relates to the jurisdiction of this committee. That's why, even though we had hoped on the Democratic side for real and meaningful bipartisan work to make the government more efficient and to make it work better for Americans, we have to sit here week after week and fight back against this abusive, lawless, and ridiculous agenda.
And you know, I want to just point out that there are now over 220 lawsuits against the Trump Administration and over 130 court restraining orders and injunctions against them because of this agenda. So why did the Chairwoman decide to call this hearing today? Why is it that we're trying to distract from an agenda that is so unpopular that two thirds of Americans disprove of what DOGE and Elon Musk are doing?
Maybe it has something to do with the failure of the President in the first 100 days and that his approval ratings have declined by 14%. Maybe it's to distract from the reality that our economy is tanking and prices are going up. Maybe it's because the budget that came to Congress last week doubles down on proposals to take food out of the mouths of children.
Maybe it's because behind closed doors all around us, they're trying to take away your Medicaid and your food assistance. So why bully trans kids? Why? Why take up airspace to bully a population that only makes up 0.6% of the population? Because clearly, they're living rent free in the GOP's minds. But simply put, Republicans are focused on the wrong 1%.
So why are they so obsessed? Why is Trump attacking trans people? Why is this the centerpiece of the Republicans here on Capitol Hill? Honestly, it's weird and it's wrong, and I just want to say to all of the people in the trans community who are watching, we uplift your stories. We are fighting for the community.
We are fighting for the rights of everyone in our communities, and this hearing has absolutely nothing to do with the Oversight committee. And that is why, at this time, I make a motion to immediately adjourn this hearing.