Stansbury invites Elon Musk to testify in front of congressional committee

Investing in technology, requiring more identity verification for welfare applicants and protecting the role of inspectors general were some of the suggestions for stopping improper federal payments, a $236 billion annual problem, during a Delivering on Government Efficiency congressional subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

The House Oversight subcommittee was created to work with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency effort to cut government spending and reduce the federal workforce. Musk’s aggressive actions, from dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and accessing Treasury Department payment systems to offering millions of federal workers “deferred resignation,” have been the subject of lawsuits and court stays.

“While we’re sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government,” said ranking member Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. She invited Musk to testify in the Oversight Committee about DOGE’s actions.

Musk’s audit of treasury payment systems was “long overdue,” said Committee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and showed databases meant to help prevent fraud were not being updated.

“Despite this fraud that’s already been revealed, a federal judge in New York issued a ruling last Friday that ran totally contrary to the will of the people. .... Only career Treasury Department unelected bureaucrats can access the system, the judge ruled,” Greene said. “This turns the Constitution on its head. We will hold this judge and others who try to stop the will of the people and their elected leaders accountable.”

Greene’s comment echoes the sentiment in a weekend social media post from Vice President JD Vance, who suggested the courts cannot control executive branch power, even though the judiciary traditionally has the ability to determine if executive actions are constitutional and legal.

The first DOGE subcommittee meeting was heavy on theatrics. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., played video of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama promising to cut waste, while Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., promised to show a “dick pic” before presenting a giant photo of Musk.

But amid the grandstanding were some policy ideas.

Outdated systems allow criminals to fraudulently get money from federal assistance programs like the pandemic Paycheck Protection loan program, said Haywood Talcove, CEO of data analytics company LexisNexis Risk Solutions. He recommended eliminating self-certification in aid programs and requiring identity verification. This idea was echoed by Dawn Royal, the United Council on Welfare Fraud director, who encouraged Congress to fund identity verification tools.

Talcove also suggested updating the 1974 Privacy Act, so agencies can easily share data, and funding fraud prevention in every appropriation bill.

Inspectors general and whistleblowers play crucial roles in mitigating fraud, said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs for the nonpartisan watchdog group Project On Government Oversight. He pointed to billions recouped from the IRS whistleblower program and over $93 billion in potential savings inspectors general identified in 2023.

Trump fired inspectors general at 17 federal agencies in January without the required notice to Congress. A group of them filed a lawsuit Thursday to be reinstated.

A more radical idea came from Stewart Whitson, senior director of federal affairs for conservative think tank the Foundation for Government Accountability: make all executive branch employees at-will and give the president authority to permanently eliminate vacant jobs and consolidate nonessential positions.