Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) made calls during a House Oversight Committee hearing to cancel Elon Musk’s government contracts if he exceeds the 130 days allotted to him to serve as a special government employee.
In an amendment he introduced, Casar said if they canceled the government contracts with Musk’s companies such as SpaceX, it would save the United States $3 billion a year.
House Oversight Republicans voted against the amendment that sought to curtail Musk’s influence on the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) introduced another amendment, which was to require President Donald Trump to follow the Supreme Court’s rulings or else have congressional Republicans’ proposed budget cuts nullified.
The purpose of the Wednesday Oversight hearing was to be a markup on budget legislation in support of Trump’s “America First” agenda.
After the two failed amendments, Casar proposed another also targeting Musk. It would allow the federal government to cancel its contracts with Musk if a court or the federal government found that Musk abused his power as a special government employee to “enrich himself.”
“These corporate grifters that use the government to enrich themselves, they should get cut off,” Casar said during the hearing. “And look, there’s a House Republican majority today, but there could be a Democratic majority tomorrow, or at least in under two years. And when we are sitting on this committee, and if we get a chance to have the subpoena power and look into this and find out that Elon Musk has used his power to enrich himself, the consequences could actually be much greater than just having his contracts cut off.”
Musk’s designation as a special government employee is set to expire by the end of May. He shared in a conference call with Tesla shareholders that he will scale back his work with DOGE to one to two days until his contract ends.
Democrats have been highly critical of Musk’s work with the Trump administration, having aired concerns that a conflict of interest exists with Musk seeking to slash government funding while his companies hold government contracts. In addition, Musk has sought to acquire new government contracts.
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“The news is out that he’s seeking this multi billion dollar contract for Trump’s golden dome,” Casar said on Wednesday. “The word is out that he’s out there messing with the [Federal Aviation Administration], trying to get his Starlink contracts at the FAA. The word is out that he tried to get a $400 million contract just recently for Tesla at the State Department, and then he got caught doing it.”
Musk and Trump have rejected any accusations that the Tesla CEO is working to make himself richer, with Republicans instead applauding his work with DOGE as being selfless.