Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, today slammed Republicans’ plan to create a subcommittee that would work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory group.
The DOGE subcommittee will be chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
During the committee’s organizational meeting for the 119th Congress, Rep. Connolly stressed that the creation of a DOGE subcommittee is “gutting the primary jurisdiction” of the existing Government Operations and Federal Workforce Subcommittee.
“I sure hope the chairman is right that we’re going to be ushering in a world of accountability and transparency with the second Trump administration. However, early signs are not encouraging,” Rep. Connolly said during Tuesday’s meeting. “The world’s richest man donated $277 million, a quarter of a billion dollars, to President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans just last year.”
“In return, he’s getting – among other things, I’m sure – his own entity to gut the Federal government of its ability to work for the people who need it. What could go wrong?” Rep. Connolly added.
Musk has said that DOGE – which is not an official government agency, but an advisory group – could cut “at least $2 trillion” from the $6.75 trillion Federal budget. However, Rep. Connolly warned that Musk doesn’t rely on many of the services that the Federal government provides.
“What could go wrong with handing the reins of the Federal government to a billionaire oligarch who sees no use for government except for his own purposes in the first place? He doesn’t rely and nor do his cronies on Social Security checks when they retire, and they have no problem cutting Social Security as a result,” the congressman said.
“They do not have to worry about a spouse losing his or her job, or the family needing to go on food stamps so they can take nutritional support from a Federal government that’s so important to them,” he added. “I think holding people accountable is an absolutely noteworthy goal. I think we can start with the DOGE process and Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Elon Musk.”
Rep. Connolly supported an amendment to the committee rules proposed by Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., to combine the DOGE subcommittee with the Government Operations and Federal Workforce Subcommittee. This amendment did not pass the committee.
On the other hand, Rep. Green said “Congress cannot have enough committees on oversight to look at cutting the ridiculous amount of spending, waste, fraud, and abuse from the Federal government. So, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to chair the Subcommittee on DOGE.”
