Twitter plunged in value and respect, so is the USA - Republicans block Musk from congressional subpoena as DOGE continues to access government data
Democrats say Musk is ignoring the law and has no authority to cut spending.
By Ivan Pereira and Jay O'Brien February 6, 2025, 9:36 AM
VIDEO 3:57
As Elon Musk continues to dismantle government agencies, threaten workers with layoffs and gain access to government data, congressional Republicans on Wednesday blocked Democratic efforts to compel him to answer for his actions under oath.
At the same time, protests demanding accountability continued.
Musk, who has not made any public appearances since the inauguration, has publicly called for slashing federal government spending and, through his non-government organization Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has frozen funding for several agencies including USAID the international aid agency.
Designated a special government employee by the White House, Musk claims he has been checking with President Donald Trump about his tactics.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via Reuters
"I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down," Musk said Monday about his effort to curtail USAID.
On Wednesday, more than 100 people protested in front of the Department of Labor, which they said is Musk's latest target.
Protesters rally outside of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Organized by the AFL-CIO, Democratic lawmakers, and other federal employee groups, demonstrators held signs saying, "nobody elected Musk," "Elon owns Trump," and "checks and balances."
David Casserly, a Department of Labor staffer told ABC News' Jay O'Brien that what Musk is doing is "not a good thing for the American people" and he had a question for the 77 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump.
"Is this what you voted for? Is this what you really want? Some unelected billionaire coming in and deciding to cut things he had never heard of until yesterday," he said
People stand in front of the Department of Labor, protesting DOGE's efforts to gut federal agencies, in Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2025. Jay O'Brien/ABC News
Meanwhile, fireworks over Musk's actions exploded in Congress.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, tore into Musk at a hearing as he moved to subpoena the controversial billionaire.
"It's a puzzling role for many people, certainly on this side of the aisle, and I think for some on yours, who is this unelected billionaire that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement and have sweeping changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight or concurrence," he said.
Republicans on the committee pushed back and engaged in a shouting match with Democrats over Musk. When GOP chairman Rep. James Comer put the subpoena motion to a vote, it failed along party lines.
Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who has shown support for DOGE in the past, abstained from voting.
[Insert: Oh no! Poor show.]
On X, Musk dismissed the Democrats' effort to force him to testify.
"How is this reality? Lmaooo," he posted.
[Realty is, Musk, that you are violating the Constitution of the USA. And the laws arising from respect for it. And in that you are betraying every decent voter of the country. That is the reality. And you think that is funny. Well there will be many more saying this out loud before long: Musk needs to be arrested and tried, and then his US citizenship needs to be stripped, and after he's served 10 years in prison, he should be deported.] https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175747380
Comer and other Republicans came to Musk and DOGE's defense contending, without evidence, that the federal government was wasting taxpayer dollars and those agencies needed to be reviewed and scaled back.
"Elon Musk trimmed the fat on X and we have the chance to do the same here," Comer said about Musk's deep cuts at the social media giant.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly speaks with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, left, during a hearing on "Rightsizing Federal Government," on Capitol Hill, Feb. 5, 2025. Al Drago/Getty Images
Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter in 2022 has been seen by some business analysts as an unsuccessful investment as the company's value has gone down sharply over the years with users and advertisers dropping the platform.
The mutual fund Fidelity marked down its estimate of X's value by 78.7% as of the end of August, .. https://according to a financial disclosure
Republicans have maintained that Musk is not in charge and answers to Trump.
When asked about Democrats' concerns and anger over DOGE, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said Trump campaigned to make the government more efficient and defended Musk's involvement in it.
While Musk won't be taking questions from leaders anytime soon, he has spent a lot of time on his social media platform making his case.
Last Thursday he reposted an X post that had a screenshot from a news article talking about DOGE aides looking at the Medicare payment system.
"Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening," Musk wrote in his post without any further details or evidence to back his claim.
The Medicare system wasn't the only government agency he put on notice this week.
[No more - ] Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives for the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington.Kevin Lamarque - Pool/Getty Images
The Treasury Department said that officials connected to DOGE have been granted "read-only" access to the sensitive Treasury system that manages trillions of dollars in government payments.
Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that DOGE is not allowed to write new code.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency responsible for forecasting the weather, researching and analyzing climate and weather data and monitoring and tracking extreme weather events like hurricanes, is now being scrutinized by Musk's team, several sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
DOGE is looking for anything tied to DEI and that they removed anything DEI-related from bulletin boards, including posters and signs, the sources said. They also checked bathroom signs to ensure they complied with Trump's executive orders.
A former NOAA employee told ABC News that he is concerned that representatives from DOGE will employ what he called the Musk's strategy of breaking things now and fixing them later. He said he's worried that NOAA's irreplaceable climate and weather data could be damaged or lost and that DOGE may be following the Project 2025 playbook.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan, even though his nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was one of its authors.
Project 2025 calls for breaking up NOAA and privatizing forecast operations. In the document, the authors wrote that NOAA is "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity."
As these moves take place, questions have been raised about how exactly Musk and his team are operating.
Musk initially wanted an office in the White House West Wing but told people he thought what he was given was too small, multiple people familiar with his comments told ABC News. So, instead, he took an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the sources said.
Musk moved beds into both the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the United States Office of Personnel Management, according to sources. The move is intended to allow both Musk and his staff to sleep there if working late, the sources said.
[It's an administrative coup. No other way to describe it.]
It follows a familiar practice at tech companies in Silicon Valley.
Signage outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center for Weather and Climate Prediction headquarters in College Park, Md., Dec. 5, 2024. Michael A. McCoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Musk's team is staffed largely by engineers and young people with little experience in government policy. At least one as young as 19 years old, according to sources.
Trump was asked Tuesday about the access Musk's team, including the younger members, had to government data and facilities and he responded he thought it was a good move.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have repeatedly discounted Musk's claims about DOGE's powers.
"It has no authority to make spending decisions, to shut down programs or ignore federal law. This is not debatable. This is an indisputable fact. No authority for spending decisions to shut down programs or ignore federal law," Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
ABC News' Rachel Scott, Matthew Glasser, Will Steakin, Katherine Faulders and Max Zahn contributed to this report.
Did they end up recording committee votes? Did any Republicans on the committee vote to subpoena Musk?
The Oversight Committee under Comer obviously do not intend to fulfill their responsibility. All who did not vote to subpoena Musk should be seen as AWOL.
We'll see- Elon Musk's access to Treasury's payment system is raising alarms. Here's what to know.
"‘You’re Out of Order!’ House Hearing Descends Into Chaos After GOP Blocks Dems From Subpoenaing Elon Musk"
By Kate Gibson Edited By Aimee Picchi Updated on: February 5, 2025 / 2:44 PM EST / CBS News
VIDEOs
With Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gaining control of the Treasury Department's payment system, consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers are raising alarms about the group's access to the federal government's financial spigot, as well as sensitive data such as the Social Security numbers of most taxpayers.
DOGE, a Trump administration task force assigned to find ways to reduce federal spending, now has access to a Treasury unit called the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which disburses trillions in payments each year, including Social Security checks and federal salaries, according to the Associated Press.
Musk's access to the payment system is raising concerns as it comes just days after the White House ordered a broad freeze on federal grants and loans, causing confusion within federal assistance programs, at nonprofits and among Americans receiving government aid. That same day, state Medicaid programs said they were locked out of the Department of Health and Human Services system used to track and disburse money.
What are the concerns?
While the White House later rescinded the memo and a judge halted the freeze, DOGE's control of the Treasury's payment system raises questions about the Trump administration's ability to halt the flow of federal funds for programs including Medicare and Social Security. It's also causing concerns about DOGE's access to the personal and financial information of most taxpayers.
"There's no community of Americans that this system does not touch, and so I think the concern is that access to this system including personally identifiable information has been ceded to the president's billionaire friend for reasons that are passing understanding," Donald K. Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CBS MoneyWatch.
There are "quite real risks" that DOGE "could potentially undermine that system and threaten millions of Americans from getting payments that they are due," he added.
Musk's access to the Treasury payment system has sparked concern from Democratic lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden, while a lawsuit .. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277055/gov.uscourts.dcd.277055.1.0.pdf .. was filed on Monday alleging "unlawful ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information" to Musk and DOGE. The lawsuit, filed by two unions and the Alliance for Retired Americans, names U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Treasury as defendants.
"Controlling the system could allow the Trump Administration to 'unilaterally' — and illegally — cut off payments for millions of Americans, putting at risk the financial security of families and businesses based on political favoritism or the whims of Mr. Musk and those on his team who have worked their way inside," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, in a Feb. 2 letter to Bessent.
She added, "It could also give them access to millions of Americans' personal and financial information that is protected by law."
The Treasury Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter stated that Tom Krause, a member of Musk's DOGE team who has been brought in as a Treasury Department employee, will "have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service's payment systems" as part of an "operational efficiency assessment."
"This is similar to the kind of access that Treasury provides to individuals reviewing Treasury systems, such as auditors, and that follows practices associated with protecting the integrity of the systems and business processes," the letter read, describing Krause as a "longtime technology executive."
Here's what to know about the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
What is the Bureau of the Fiscal Service?
The Treasury has long been the federal government's checkbook, tasked with handling payments for individual agencies based on funds appropriated by Congress. Its systems control the flow of over $6 trillion in payments to American families, businesses and other recipients each year.
The Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service handles most of those payments. About 90 cents of every $1 in federal payments are sent through the little-known division.
In fiscal 2023, the unit disbursed nearly 1.3 billion payments totaling $5.4 trillion, according to the agency. Almost 97% of the payments were made electronically and all were made on time, it noted[/u].
How did DOGE get control of the payment system?
The executive order signed by President Trump that created DOGE directed all agencies to make sure it was given "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT systems." DOGE itself is not a federal department.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, gained control of the system after Treasury's acting Deputy Secretary, David Lebryk, resigned from his position after more than 30 years of service. Lebryk stepped down after Musk and his DOGE organization requested access to sensitive Treasury data, the Washington Post had reported.
On Sunday, Musk stated that DOGE had stopped payments from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services to Lutheran Family Services, a faith-based charity that had been offering social services to refugees.
Could this impact Social Security?
Lawmakers and consumer advocates are raising concerns about the potential impact on government programs including Social Security, although neither Musk nor Mr. Trump have flagged Social Security as a target for cuts.
Indeed, Mr. Trump has said he will preserve Social Security, and while on the campaign trail he vowed to eliminate taxes on Social Security Income. But because the Bureau of the Fiscal Services sends monthly checks to more than 70 million Social Security beneficiaries, some advocates say they're worried.
Musk and DOGE "now have access to the personal information of every Social Security beneficiary — and the ability to stop payments for any federal programs they dislike," said Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, an advocacy group for the programs, in an email. "Seniors, their families, and people with disabilities most certainly cannot trust Trump and Musk with their crucial federal benefits — or their personal data."
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a Jan. 31 letter to Bessent that he's concerned that Social Security checks could be impacted, "whether intentional or unintentional."
"It appears that Musk's behavior is forcing out highly qualified and experienced career public servants in order to get his way and fulfill Trump's goal of eviscerating the federal budget, including potentially by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits for millions of Americans who are already struggling to pay their bills or buy groceries," he wrote.
In a response to Wyden's letter, however, Jonathan Blum, a legislative affairs official at Treasury, told Wyden that DOGE personnel are only only able to read "coded data" .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/treasury-says-elon-musk-doge-has-read-only-access-to-payment-systems/ .. in the federal payment system and cannot change scheduled systems. DOGE "has not caused payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed," Blum wrote.
Bloomberg was the first to report on the letter.
Warren said Blum's letter raised more questions than answers. "It asserts that a set of Treasury staff members have 'read-only' access but fails to answer questions about non-Treasury employees, like those working for Elon Musk and DOGE," she said in a statement. Does Musk have access to taxpayers' personal data?
Lawmakers and consumer advocates are also raising concerns about DOGE's access to personal data for millions of American taxpayers. Because the Bureau of the Fiscal Service distributes tax refunds and Social Security payments, it has access to the Social Security numbers and bank accounts of recipients.
Kate Miller, who serves on an advisory board for DOGE, didn't respond to requests for comment but did repost an Associated Press article on X with the comment, "No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances."
Access to that personal information could pose risks to taxpayers, according to data safety experts.
"Traditionally, access to this information has been highly restricted and among the most secure information the U.S. government holds," said James E. Lee, the president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch.
He added, "This is the kind of information that, if it found its way into the hands of a bad actor, could lead to a wide range of identity crimes — impersonation to open new accounts or access existing ones, theft of the funds in an existing banking account, applying for new state or federal government benefits, and filing false tax returns among other forms of identity fraud."
The data is also sensitive because it could be useful to intelligence agencies in other nations, including the personal data of government employees or ties that businesses have with the U.S. government, Lee noted.
That concern was echoed by Sen. Wyden, who in the Jan. 31 letter to Bessent questioned granting access to sensitive information to Musk due to significant business interests in China, noting that Tesla operates its largest factory in China. Musk didn't respond to a request for comment.
Richard Escobedo and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
