Subcommittee Democrats Call Out Elon Musk and DOGE’s Efforts to Clear a Path for Corruption

Washington, D.C. (February 13, 2025)—Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, led Subcommittee Democrats in condemning DOGE’s campaign to dismantle the federal government, undermine checks and balances, and put the interest of billionaires before the American people.    

“This Committee is tasked ... with ensuring that the government and the vital services that it provides—from health care to national security—actually work for the American people ... But unfortunately, the Committee’s priorities have been elsewhere under the current majority.”  Instead, of helping everyday Americans, “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,” said Ranking Member Stansbury in her opening statement.   

The hearing included testimony from Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Director of Government Affairs, Project On Government Oversight; Haywood Talcove, Chief Executive Officer, LexisNexis Special Services, Inc; Stewart Whitson, Senior Director of Federal Affairs, Foundation for Government Accountability; and Dawn Royal, Director, United Council on Welfare Fraud.  

Committee Democrats called out Republicans’ complete capitulation to billionaire oligarch Elon Musk and his “DOGE” pet project while underscoring what American families stand to lose from this attack on government.  

• Rep. Robert Garcia stressed that Democrats will stand up to those “who want to shut down the Department of Education and destroy Medicare and Medicaid.”  He emphasized that “we should not stand by as the richest man on the planet gives himself and his companies huge tax cuts while the American people get absolutely nothing.”   
   
• Ranking Member Stansbury reminded the Republican Majority that Congress “work(s) for the American people.  And so, if an unelected, unvetted, individual private citizen who is hacking our government systems, breaking the law, firing federal employees, dismantling statutorily created agencies, withholding funds, we are going to fight you in the courts.” 
   
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett called on her Republican colleagues to perform some actual oversight, noting that “they have relinquished their constitutional duties over to an unelected bureaucrat.”  She went on to note that, despite no one voting for Elon Musk, “he is occupying the Oval Office as we saw yesterday.”

Committee Democrats emphasized how Elon Musk’s extensive conflicts of interest have led to purges of anyone who might hold him and the Administration to account.  
 

• Rep. Greg Casar brought attention to the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect Elon Musk, highlighting that “at least 5 inspectors general that were looking into Elon Musk’s companies were fired by the Trump-Musk Administration.  These inspectors general who were independent, protected by law, they are the people that find the waste, fraud, and abuse, and found many of the cases of waste, fraud, and abuse that have been brought up today, were fired because they were looking into Elon Musk.”   
   
• Ranking Member Stansbury emphasized that DOGE is “trying to shut down payments.  They’re trying to shut down agencies.  What's next?  Are they going to shut down your Social Security payments?  We don’t know. Because they have no oversight and Elon Musk will not come in front of this committee.  And in fact, the Treasury folks are saying this is the biggest insider threat they’ve ever seen in the history of the agency.  So we are sounding the alarm and no matter how many executive orders that Donald Trump signs or how many tweets that the VP sends, you cannot rewrite the Constitution, and we are going to hold you to account.” 

Committee Democrats reiterated their commitment to policies that actually fight waste, fraud, and abuse:  investing in a skilled workforce, independent inspectors general, and modernizing technology.

• Rep. Stephen Lynch pointed to findings from the non-partisan Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency showing that IGs “identified more than $93 billion in potential savings” in 2023.  When asked about the impact of President Trump firing 17 inspectors general, Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette explained that the dismissal “completely undermines our ability to root out waste, fraud, and abuse,” and that “it’s completely anathema to any stated mission to find cost savings and root out, waste, fraud, and abuse.”      
   
• Ranking Member Gerald E. Connolly pointed to real solutions to government efficiency: “we can modernize federal IT systems, which we have championed for years on this committee.”  He pointed out that replacing “legacy systems alone could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in operating and maintenance costs.” In addressing DOGE’s careless approach, Ranking Member Connolly said, “a wrecking ball is not going to do it, and we’re not going to support that approach to waste, fraud and abuse.” 
   
• Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton continued her longstanding advocacy for civil servants, noting that the Administration wants “to gut the nonpartisan civil service and to convert a significant portion of the remaining civil service into political appointees, depriving the federal government of employees’ expertise and experience, that will harm the services that the government provides to all Americans.”  When she asked Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette how this forced mass exodus would affect waste, fraud, and abuse, he responded that “chaos is not the friend of efficiency.  If you undermine the very functionality of the government, you’re not going to make it more efficient, you’re going to make it worse, and it’s going to cost even more money to recoup or to fix things that go wrong in the interim.”   

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