ELON MUSK-DOGE THREATS TO GOVERNMENT

ELON MUSK-DOGE THREATS TO GOVERNMENT

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2025) [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 f