Republicans on the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee rapidly quashed an effort by Democrats to subpoena Elon Musk to look earlier than the panel to reply questions on a sequence of actions impacting federal companies and their workforce.
The transfer clearly caught Republicans without warning. They initially didn’t have sufficient votes to quash the movement, sending lawmakers scrambling again to the listening to room.
“Who is this unelected billionaire that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement and have sweeping changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight or concurrence? Therefore, Mr. Chairman, given his prominence and his importance, I move that the committee subpoena Elon Musk to come report as a witness at the earliest possible moment,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) mentioned.
In latest weeks Musk, the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) chief, has despatched employees to a set of companies and tapped into databases on the Workplace of Personnel Administration and the Treasury Division.
Comparable actions have taken place on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth the place staff have been shut out of their electronic mail and instructed to not present as much as the workplace.
He was additionally the brainchild behind a brand new federal authorities program providing buyouts to federal staff: eight months of pay and advantages to entice employees to depart their jobs.
Musk’s standing as a federal worker isn’t completely clear. He’s been labeled as a “special government employee,” which often is proscribed to 130 days.
It’s additionally unclear what authority DOGE staff must entry the databases.
After Republicans killed the movement, committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) faulted Democrats for not inviting Musk as their witness for the listening to — a suggestion that will probably have been refused.
“You all could have invited Mr. Musk to be your minority witness, but you all chose to have a college professor, which is what you normally choose to have as a witness at any hearing and that’s fine, but you all had an opportunity to invite Elon Musk,” Comer mentioned.
Earlier within the listening to, Comer defended the work of DOGE, saying “real innovation isn’t clean and tidy.”
“It’s what the American people voted for in November: a departure from the broken status quo,” he mentioned.
