[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H697-H700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ELON MUSK-DOGE THREATS TO GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2025, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio has 35 minutes 
remaining.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Garamendi, who is such a 
distinguished Member, for substituting for me while I was in our Budget 
Committee. I know what a phenomenal job he does and how deeply he loves 
our country and how hard he fights for her and for all the people that 
he represents and those include my constituents, too. His work is just 
phenomenal. I thank him for being here today.
  Mr. Speaker, I will focus a little on Elon Musk and put some 
materials in

[[Page H698]]

the Record. He is an unelected billionaire with no Federal clearance, 
standing or sitting right next to the President of the United States, 
almost on a daily basis.
  Mr. Musk is so rich he could buy my entire congressional district and 
have lots left over.
  He spent millions upon millions, more than I and all of our relatives 
are worth, to defeat House Democrats for Congress, myself included.
  I couldn't come near to match his money. He did the same to many of 
my colleagues in this House, including some with us today.
  Can you imagine having enough money to put millions and millions of 
dollars up against Members of Congress to control Congress? That is 
what is going on.
  Political victories to billionaires equate to the fall of our 
Republic. Presidents Washington and Lincoln could never have imagined 
this selling off of our Republic. Musk has endless money. He uses it 
fiercely.
  Some of us won despite the tidal wave of his money. Politics 
shouldn't be about raising oodles of money. It should be about serving 
our people and strengthening our Nation for all, not just the 
superrich. You know what? They have enough.
  The America we have known is at risk of becoming owned by a 
billionaire class. If and when that happens, our precious freedoms will 
vanish.
  Now, our family and I have been citizens of this country for our 
entire lives, three generations, totaling over a century and a half: 
grandparents, parents, and us. Every generation worked very hard here. 
It wasn't easy. They fought fiercely for our Nation as veterans in 
every major war to defeat dictators, to preserve liberty for our Nation 
and others, and then they bequeathed that precious gift to us. We all 
worked hard to become more educated. Our family, community, and Nation 
are my treasures.
  By contrast, Elon Musk holds citizenship in three countries: South 
Africa, Canada, and then for the last 22 years, the USA.
  I keep asking myself: To which one is he most loyal? He was born and 
raised in apartheid South Africa in very well-to-do circumstances. With 
the fall of that apartheid regime not so many years ago, after a great 
human rights struggle inside South Africa, his father knew that 
economic circumstance would change in South Africa, so he took Elon, 
then a teenager, to visit over a dozen countries, including Canada, 
where Elon's mother still resides.
  Elon took a second citizenship in Canada. He obtained a visa then to 
attend college in the United States as a foreign student, graduating in 
economics and physics. He then moved to Silicon Valley for graduate 
school, but dropped out after 2 days.
  There is still remaining some questions as to whether he illegally 
overstayed in our country on a student visa. Records show he has only 
been a citizen of our country for 22 years, having become a citizen in 
the year of 2002.
  Bottom line: Why has President Donald Trump just given a naturalized 
citizen with two other citizenships and with no Federal clearance and 
only 22 years of residency in our Nation the keys to the U.S. 
Department of the Treasury's electronic payment systems. That data 
records every citizens' private financial information and every 
businesses' private information across our country.
  Musk got the position completely without the normal ethic 
investigations required of every political appointee to any President.
  When I served President Carter, the FBI checked our records, people 
all the way back to grade school. That was not done for this man.
  The American people need to know more about exactly how Elon, now an 
unelected billionaire, built his fortune off Federal Government 
contracts. In our Budget Committee, a number was just stated that he 
holds up to $18 billion of contracts with the Government of the United 
States. That began with a huge $465 million loan from the U.S. 
Department of Energy to launch Tesla in California. Who exactly lobbied 
in that department for that loan, and who and why was it accepted? We 
are told it was paid back.
  Frankly, I have never known anyone who has gotten a loan that large 
from the Government of the United States with his background.
  For the record, Elon Musk paid that loan back over time, but began 
increasing the amounts of his gigantic loan and grant applications to 
the Federal Government with the largest thus far, we think, being with 
NASA.
  Wouldn't we call this a conflict of interest, Mr. Speaker? Would we 
allow the head of GM or any other large corporation in our country to 
sit next to the President and go into the U.S. Department of the 
Treasury and not say it was a conflict of interest? Are we all fools?
  In using his financial leverage to re-elect Donald Trump, Musk should 
have been vetted by the FBI as is anyone who works close to the 
Presidency or critical government records. It appears Musk simply has 
been leveraging his vast fortune off government contracts.
  Is he rummaging through Treasury files to gain an advantage over 
competitors or to seek vengeance in business dealings?
  Just this year, he ordered the State Department to buy $400 million 
worth of his own cybertrucks, but when scrutiny came, the purchase 
order mysteriously disappeared the word ``Tesla'' from their 
procurement orders.
  How about that?
  Over the past 5 years alone, he has received over $13 billion in 
government awards to his company. I ask every Member of Congress here 
and listening, do you know any other human being who has ever been 
allowed this kind of access with such private-sector interest in 
dipping into the U.S. Department of the Treasury time and again across 
all these agencies? It is unbelievable.
  Conflict of interest equals Elon Musk. He should not be able to 
invade the private records of the American people at the U.S. 
Department of the Treasury. Yet, he has done just that. Every person 
hearing my words, he has invaded your records, your tax records, your 
business reports.
  Think about that. Think about the investments that the Department of 
the Treasury makes in order to roll over our debt.

                              {time}  1200

  No one listening to this today, nor any elected official here in 
Congress, could ever have gained access to the records of the American 
people held in confidence in the U.S. Treasury. I can tell you how 
difficult it is even for a Member of Congress to get an appointment to 
see the Secretary of the Treasury. We have been trying over the last 
several weeks. We haven't gotten it yet.
  With Musk, what a breach of privacy for every American citizen. One 
must ask, how did he finagle this heist for the princely sum of $250 
million spent on Presidential campaigns and congressional campaigns? I 
am sure that number doubles.
  It literally is more and more like a quid pro quo. Elon Musk 
bankrolled President Trump's reelection, and for this, he is given the 
keys to America's financial kingdom. Wow. This is new in American 
history.
  Musk is now using unsecured, private servers to snoop on the millions 
of private accounts of the American people and businesses with which he 
is in competition.
  Where is the business community? Are they afraid of him? Will they 
speak up?
  Wall Street is speaking up in a very interesting way. The markets 
have been really rickety these last few days. They are not too 
comfortable. They are not dumb.
  Pay attention. Musk must be identifying individuals he would like to 
upend. Are they afraid, too, like Members of Congress who are afraid to 
speak out because they are afraid Musk will put more money up against 
them in the next campaign? Guess what? He is going to do it anyway, so 
speak out.
  Whatever he is concocting with his inverted merry band of minions, 
aged 19-26? They have no security clearances and no experience to work 
at the U.S. Treasury Department.
  Every person in America must have a concern about this. Their Social 
Security records, their health benefits, the profits of their 
corporations, and who they do business with is all there. His sole 
mission is to collect private, confidential information for more self-
dealing and maybe threats and tax cuts for the billionaire class.

[[Page H699]]

  Does Elon Musk have to file a financial disclosure statement like all 
of us? Where is it? We have to have them. Where is his? It seems his 
will be kept private.
  Musk is ruthless and a self-enabler. Surely, he seeks to wipe out his 
competitors or spy at will on the privileged information of the 
American people. I might ask anyone listening today, why does he have 
access to your mom's Social Security records and your grandpa's 
Medicare? What does he now know about you and your family?
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleagues joining me today, and I yield 
to the gentleman from Georgia, Congressman Hank Johnson. I thank him so 
very much for participating. I also thank Congresswoman Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz for substituting when I was not able to be on the 
floor.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for 
convening us for this Special Order today and for her very thoughtful 
comments.
  Today, I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our 
democracy into a dictatorship.
  While co-President Donald Trump focuses on expanding his business 
opportunities globally while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the 
cost of living for ordinary Americans, co-president Elon Musk has taken 
a wrecking ball to the Federal Government one agency at a time.
  Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to delete, and 
it is only Congress, under our Constitution, not an unelected co-
president, that has the constitutional authority to abolish a Federal 
agency.
  We still live in a democracy, which is government of, by, and for the 
people who have the right, the precious right, to vote for their 
leaders.
  We tell our constituents to vote. We tell them their votes and voices 
matter, that their choices shape the future of this country, but what 
does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz into our 
agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the ground like a 
Taliban terrorist, threatening 2 million Federal employees to resign 
under false pretenses, putting other folks out of work, and stopping 
payments to small businesses and nonprofits while illegally putting in 
purchase orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in 
taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks?
  This level of corruption is shocking. Co-President Trump and the 
Republicans in Congress, all of whom have abrogated their legislative 
power to the king, have handed the keys to the Nation's Treasury to 
unelected co-president Elon Musk. Their actions are taking what we know 
as corruption to a whole new level. This is banana republic-style 
corruption at its ugliest.
  While the powerful play their games, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and 
their billionaire buddies get richer while the cost of living goes up 
for everybody else.
  Every day, my constituents call me, worried and scared, asking how an 
unelected billionaire they never voted for is gutting the very 
resources they rely on to put food on the table and a roof over their 
heads.
  They see a man who wants billionaires like himself to pay nothing 
while hardworking Americans foot the bill.
  They see him kneecapping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an 
agency created to shield the people from scams, fraud, and corporate 
greed.
  They ask why someone with a long history of union-busting, worker 
abuse, and blatant disregard for labor laws is being allowed to scuttle 
the Department of Labor.
  They want to know why a billionaire businessman from South Africa, 
who holds no elective office, has been given unchecked access and 
influence over their most sensitive personal and financial information, 
their rights, and their future.
  Let me be clear: I am committed to ensuring that president Musk stops 
this attack on the American people. House and Senate Democrats will not 
stand by, like my Republican colleagues are doing, while Elon Musk 
hijacks our government. We will fight to protect the institutions that 
serve the people, not the privileged. That is what we must do to 
protect democracy and freedom.

  We will stand, and we will fight. With the American people roused in 
peaceful, nonviolent protests across the country, Mr. Speaker, we will 
win. This country belongs to the people, not to the billionaires.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Johnson for his 
comments. I yield to the gentleman from New York, Congressman Tim 
Kennedy, a phenomenal new Member from Buffalo.
  Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking 
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for her leadership on this important issue.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government exists to protect the rights and 
well-being of all Americans. People in my district want a government 
that works and works to improve the lives of western New Yorkers and 
all Americans.
  People in my district and others across the country do not want an 
unelected billionaire dismantling our government for parts and raking 
in profits in the process.
  That is what is happening. President Trump has allowed Elon Musk to 
operate with unchecked authority, unilaterally and illegally gutting 
the agencies that protect everything we hold dear, all without 
necessary congressional approval.
  In my district alone, there are 8,500-plus Federal employees, 
including those at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, the Social Security 
Administration, the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, and many, many 
other agencies that help our communities each and every day.
  We can't protect the privacy of millions of Americans if Elon Musk 
has access to private taxpayer data, including that of Social Security 
recipients, Medicare beneficiaries, and taxpayers. We can't advance 
lifesaving, scientific, and cancer research breakthroughs if Elon Musk 
hollows out the National Institutes of Health. We cannot provide the 
benefits and services to our military heroes, who have earned and 
deserve it, if Elon Musk drives away Federal employees who serve our 
veterans.
  This is to say nothing of Elon Musk's dizzying list of conflicts of 
interest. This is an unelected billionaire who has made those billions 
in large part from taxpayer-funded government contracts. This President 
has handed him unprecedented power to wring out hardworking families 
for every penny that they have.
  We can't allow an individual who prioritizes profits above all and 
cozies up to adversaries like China and Russia to make decisions for 
the American people. We must continue to fight for the rights and well-
being of hardworking families and put people over billionaire profit. 
Our constituents deserve nothing less.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I believe an additional speaker is coming.
  While we are waiting, Mr. Speaker, I want to point to this. If there 
are citizens who are listening, if we look at some of the government 
contracts that Mr. Musk is engaged in, we are trying to make this as 
complete as we can.
  For example, NASA is one of the largest contracts that he personally 
has. Look at this number, $11.8 billion with NASA. Can you imagine how 
many subcontractors there are on that job? That is just one connection.
  Then, we look over to the U.S. Department of Defense, and that is 
$3.6 billion.
  These are enormous contracts. I have companies in my district that do 
contract with the government. They don't have contracts that size.
  We look at the Department of Commerce, $1.9 million. Mr. Musk has a 
contract there.
  The Department of Veterans Affairs is an interesting one, $463,000. I 
am not sure what that is for.
  The Department of State is $440,000. You can do a lot with $440,000. 
There is a lot of information at the State Department. What is that 
contract for?
  Then, we have a whole series at other agencies. We know it is well 
over a million dollars. We can't even track how much it is. This is an 
enormous amount of money. Even General Dynamics and some of our large 
corporations, I don't think, have this kind of reach.
  Mr. Speaker, apparently, we don't have any final speakers. I thank 
the Speaker and all those who are listening for their indulgence. This 
is a time for the American people to be intrepid and on the watch and 
providing information to their Members of Congress about information 
they may have

[[Page H700]]

about what Mr. Musk and all of his alliances are doing across this 
country--to benefit the Republic.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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