During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) called on his Republican colleagues to invite Elon Musk to testify before Congress and answer questions about DOGE.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I wanted to comment on the
00:07earlier debate where Representative Grothman and Representative
00:12Green said that some of these cuts that Musk and Doge are
00:18making are good and making our country more efficient. And our
00:22side said, no, there are Federal workers who are being fired
00:25without cause, and they aren't the poor performers that they
00:30are.
00:31And I guess my question for the Chair, and I know Chair
00:33Comer isn't here, is why not have Elon Musk come before this
00:39committee and make the case? I mean, why not have Representative
00:43Green ask him to explain why she thinks the situation is good
00:47and have the confidence to explain that to the American
00:50public, and we can ask him questions about where we think
00:54he has violated the law?
00:56But I do not understand what the reluctance is to have Mr.
01:02Musk come here. If you are so confident on your side that what
01:04he is doing is in the interest of the American people, why not
01:08have speech and have him here? And I hope that the Chair will
01:13consider that request.
01:16Mr. Dodaro, I have great respect for you, and I have great
01:20respect for your service. But with due respect, this is not a
01:25time for caution in speaking out. Your predecessor, Elmer
01:30Statz, took Gerald Ford to court because Ford was not willing to
01:36comply with the Impoundment Act. This was not a decision that
01:40she made, that Statz made, but lawyers, Statz spoke out.
01:45And I want to ask you whether what you think the President is
01:49doing in pausing these payments automatically is a violation of
01:57the Impoundment Act.
01:58Mr. Dodaro. We are looking at that issue. We have already
02:02sent letters to the administration asking them to explain their
02:07legal position to us, and we will be making rulings as to
02:11whether or not these issues violated the Impoundment Control
02:15Act or not.
02:16Mr. Chaffetz. When will you be making that?
02:17Mr. Dodaro. As soon as we can get the information from the
02:20administration. We are following the court cases as well, so we
02:23are evaluating the court filings.
02:25Mr. Chaffetz. What if they refuse to give you the information?
02:27Mr. Dodaro. Well, we have the information that is available
02:30through the court filings of what their legal positions are for
02:33many of these issues that are subject to the litigation.
02:36Mr. Chaffetz. Would you say within 45 days? Because that is
02:38the recession, I mean, they have about 45 days. I mean, I think
02:43the automatic payments is a violation itself.
02:45Mr. Dodaro. Yes. We are going to make these decisions as fast
02:48as possible. I fully intend to carry out our responsibilities
02:53under the Impoundment Control Act expeditiously and thoroughly.
02:57Mr. Chaffetz. How about by May 1st?
02:58Mr. Dodaro. I will check with my attorneys, what the people
03:03always say. I will let you know. I am going to do it as quickly
03:08as we can. But we need to be careful and thorough, because the
03:14next step for us is to go to court ourselves. I mean, under
03:18the Impoundment Control Act, if we say there is an impoundment,
03:21the money is not released within a certain period of time, we
03:24have to go to court.
03:25Mr. Chaffetz. And are you prepared to do that?
03:26Mr. Dodaro. Yes. Yes. But I need to be prepared and be careful.
03:33And it is because when I go there, I want to win. All right?
03:36So we are going to do this as fast and as thoroughly as we
03:40can. We have a good track record on this area. I have a good
03:44group of attorneys. And we are going to do a thorough job.
03:47Mr. Chaffetz. So can the American people be assured that if
03:50there are violations of the Impoundment Act in the automatic
03:54pause or in the cuts, that you will make sure that you
04:00prosecute that or take it to court and are confident that you
04:03will prevail?
04:04Mr. Dodaro. I can be confident that I will take it to its full
04:09closure. I am not going to predict what the court is going to
04:12say. I know better than that. But they have their own
04:15independent decisionmaking. They are making some decisions
04:18right now on these very topics.
04:22But I know and I am confident I can give the American people
04:25assurance we will carry out our responsibilities.
04:27Mr. Chaffetz. But to all the constituents who are saying we
04:29are not doing enough, these things are getting paused, there
04:32are cuts that are happening, you can assure them that you are
04:35moving as expeditiously and taking this as seriously, that this
04:39is your top priority in making sure that you are going to
04:44uphold the Impoundment Act and take aggressive action if it is
04:48violated.
04:49Mr. Dodaro. Absolutely. Absolutely. I have been talking about
04:51this as soon as things started to unfold. We sent our letters
04:56over. This is very important.
05:00Now, there are a lot of factors that go into making these
05:02decisions. One is how specific Congress was in the
05:05appropriation law to begin with. We need to take that into
05:10account.
05:11This year we are in a continuing resolution stage, so you
05:14don't have a lot of specifics for this fiscal year, whether it
05:18is no-year money or no-year money. There are some pauses for
05:22programmatic review. So there are a lot of details and a lot of
05:26legal considerations to sort through. But this is a high
05:30priority for us, and we are going to execute our
05:33responsibilities.
05:34I appreciate it.
05:35All right. I will now recognize Mr. Biggs for five minutes.
05:39Thank you so much. It is good to see you again. Welcome back.