Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (May 15, 2025)— Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government reform, sent a letter to White House Counsel David Warrington demanding all documents and information pertaining to President Trump’s intention to accept a $400 million plane from the Qatari government and urging the White House to immediately decline this “gift.”

Washington, D.C. (May 14, 2025)— Today, Rep. Stephen F. Lynch and Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, hosted a roundtable with major federal employee groups and civil service organizations to coordinate action against the Republican Budget’s House Oversight Reconciliation provisions that steal earned wages, benefits, and retirement security from federal workers to subsidize tax giveaways to billionaires.  Republicans’ budget includes provisions to steal earned retirement benefits, decrease the take home pay of existing and new federal employees, claw back already-promised retirement payments, and force new federal employees to choose between being subject to President Trump’s political purges of the federal workforce or receiving a smaller paycheck for their entire career.

Washington, D.C. (May 14, 2025)—After Chairman Higgins and Oversight Republicans declined to hold a hearing under normal Committee procedure, refused to honor the Minority’s right to invite their own witness, and rejected the Minority’s demand for equal participation in Subcommittee events, Rep. Summer L. Lee, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, led Subcommittee Democrats in refusing to attend Republicans’ one-sided roundtable.

Washington, D.C. (May 14, 2025)—Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Joe Morelle, Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding that Treasury make available to the Committees all suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to the online fundraising platform WinRed and several political action committees (PACs), including Elon Musk’s America PAC.

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.