[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 74 (Monday, May 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2747-S2749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, it looks like my timing is exquisite 
because I came down here to talk about something that I think has sort 
of fallen off the radar screen here in recent weeks, and that is the 
work of the Department of Government Efficiency,

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one of the most important developments that I think we have seen with 
the advent of President Trump's ascension to the Office of President.
  It is amazing to me to listen to my Democratic colleagues talking 
like Chicken Little: ``The sky is falling.'' I heard the Senator from 
Rhode Island suggest that we are trying to privatize Social Security. 
There is no one--absolutely no one--suggesting that. This is what is 
called a straw man. You erect a phony argument, and you knock it down, 
and you claim victory.
  The truth is, Mr. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency 
should be applauded for their efforts to root out waste, fraud, and 
abuse. You would think taxpayers--the same taxpayers our colleagues 
represent in their States--would applaud this effort.
  I can't think of a more difficult but important goal than helping the 
government find efficiencies and reduce spending, because if we reduce 
spending, two things happen: Either we reduce the taxes that are taken 
from the hard-working families and produce the revenue by which 
government operates or we eliminate or reduce the amount of debt that 
the Federal Government accrues, which right now is at an unsustainable 
level. To me, both of those things are positive: limiting the amount of 
money that comes from the taxpayer or--and maybe it is ``and''--
reducing the government debt.
  The problem with runaway spending by the government, of course, is 
not a new one, but it has been getting increasingly worse, particularly 
during the last 4 years of the Biden administration. The truth is, it 
has taken us a long time to get to $37 trillion in debt, but it has now 
reached the point of unsustainability. We are spending more money on 
interest on the national debt than we are on defense in an increasingly 
dangerous world. That alone is unsustainable.
  Ronald Reagan described our spending problem back in 1984, when he 
said these famous words, ``We could say they spend money like drunken 
sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors,'' which just 
about sums it up.
  For somebody like Elon Musk, who is reportedly one of the most 
wealthy--maybe, the most wealthy person--on the planet to spend his 
time and effort and to assemble a team like he has to work with the 
government and to start the Department of Government Efficiency is a 
huge public service. I am grateful to Elon Musk, who has volunteered 
his time, as well as recruiting others to help the U.S. Government deal 
with its spending addiction and to try to help it get clean--certainly, 
much worse than a drunken sailor.
  This morning, I had a chance to meet with a gentleman, Joe Gebbia, 
who is the former CEO of Airbnb and who is volunteering his time 
because he sees this as an unprecedented opportunity to get at problems 
that the government historically has been unable to deal with, and that 
is the incredible rise and increase in government spending, the 
inefficiency, the waste of taxpayer funds, and the national debt.
  So getting a team like this, with very accomplished entrepreneurs and 
people who have been very successful in the private sector, to come in 
and try to help us figure out how to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse 
strikes me as an act of patriotism and public service.
  I know we have heard the saying that imitation is the highest form of 
flattery. Back home in Texas, Governor Abbott and the Texas Legislature 
have also followed dozens of other States in paying a high compliment 
to the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk by proposing a 
DOGE-like task force at the State level. I am sure that, even in a 
State as efficiently run and with as low taxes as Texas, you can find 
inefficiency that can be and should be rooted out.
  Govenor Abbott recently signed the first bill of this year's 
legislative session into law to establish the Texas Regulatory 
Efficiency Office, modeled after DOGE.
  While some States are more fiscally responsible than others, State 
governments, as I said, are not immune from spending taxpayer money on 
outdated or inefficient programs. Texas is one of the most efficient. 
That shouldn't surprise anyone. We have the fourth lowest State taxes 
in the country, and we have been ranked one of the lowest spending 
States in terms of State-spending per capita.
  I look forward to seeing the great work being done down in Austin by 
the Texas DOGE and what they can do to try to help make State 
government more efficient. I know I join many of them in thanking Elon 
and his team at DOGE for the inspiration and what he has brought down 
to our State.
  Of course, Elon's status within the Federal Government is that of 
what is called a special government employee. That means it is for a 
period of time--130 days, in this case. And with that date approaching 
soon, Mr. Musk indicates he plans to wrap up his work. But I must 
emphasize that the work of DOGE must go on. The task of improving 
government efficiency is one that will never be finished.
  I believe that Elon Musk and his team at DOGE have made monumental 
progress in just a few short months. Let me give you a few examples.
  The Department of the Treasury started its first automated payment 
verification system at the recommendation of DOGE. So far, more than 
$300 million has been identified in improper payment requests.
  Over at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the 
government has launched a Fraud Detection Operations Center, and 1 week 
ago today, CMS announced they suspended suspected fraudulent payments 
to 33 different providers. One such fraudulent payment was for a 
patient that died two decades ago. It reminds me of some of the people 
on the Social Security rolls that DOGE has also found--some well in 
excess of 100 years old, if they exist at all.

  Well, another example included billing more than $2 million in 
genetic testing for patients that never actually received the test. 
These are just a few examples of the gross fraud and inefficiencies 
that happened throughout the Federal Government.
  I am sure it is just the tip of the iceberg, but these technical 
payment glitches are just scratching the surface. DOGE's findings and 
recommendations have also eliminated some of the most egregious 
examples of fraud.
  The Department of Justice, in partnership with DOGE, discovered and 
charged an Iraqi man for illegally voting in a U.S. election. Now, we 
should know--I think everybody does know--that foreign nationals, 
noncitizens, are not eligible to vote in U.S. elections. That is a 
privilege reserved for citizens of the United States. Instances of 
foreign nationals voting in our elections threaten the bedrock of our 
democratic Republic. All of us should be thankful to the Department of 
Justice, Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and DOGE that they 
identified and eliminated this violation of the sanctity of our 
elections process.
  The Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture are working 
to make sure that illegal immigrants are not receiving Federal benefits 
that they are not authorized to receive, such as unemployment insurance 
or SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps. These programs were 
meant to protect vulnerable Americans, not to reward illegal immigrants 
for breaking our laws.
  From eliminating improper payments to safeguarding our elections, I 
believe we owe Mr. Musk a debt of gratitude for helping to identify 
these problems--again, just the tip of the iceberg--and/or eliminating 
these wasteful uses of hard-earned tax dollars.
  In order to consolidate the gains that DOGE has made, I support 
Congress and the administration working together to codify these cost-
cutting measures through rescissions. That is the official process by 
which we actually save the money.
  This will be important for a few different reasons. No. 1, it will 
allow us to use the savings that DOGE is identifying in order to offset 
the costs of the tax bill that we are currently considering, allowing 
us to send even more money back to the American people. Any money we 
can save from wasteful spending, obviously, can be sent back or kept by 
the people who earn it in the first place, which are hard-working 
American families.
  So I am very happy to hear that the White House indicated that they 
plan on sending us a rescissions package very soon. I would recommend, 
personally, that they send a rescissions package on a monthly basis.

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  I am going to be very interested to see how our Democratic colleagues 
react to some of these sensible spending cuts or rescissions. So far, 
what they have done is they have been in complete opposition to 
anything and everything that the Trump administration has proposed, 
including the Department of Government Efficiency.
  I don't think it helps their credibility when some of the most 
egregious expenditures and waste of taxpayer money are pointed out, and 
they complain about the person who is identifying it and made it 
possible maybe to save that money or to return it to the taxpayers from 
whom it came in the first place.
  As officials at the Office of Management and Budget consider their 
options moving forward, I hope they know that I will be a willing and 
eager partner in their efforts.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

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