During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) slammed Elon Musk and President Trump’s recent firings as a result of the Department of Government Efficiency's oversight.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Ramirez, for her five minutes of questioning.
00:07Thank you, Chairs and Ranking Members.
00:11I'm not sure if the titles of these hearings are purposefully ironic or simply unfortunate
00:17coincidence for my Republican colleagues' boss.
00:22Unmanned is at the heart of President Musk's technologically-driven future world vision.
00:28And given his devotees in the room, it makes sense that we're not talking about the human
00:33casualties in Doja's mass firings, but the bots he wants to take their place.
00:40And don't get me wrong.
00:41I recognize that drones and other innovative technologies are critical tools to assist
00:46in disaster and emergency response, but I can't ignore the elephant in the room.
00:52Innovative technology should be assistive, supporting the work of emergency responders.
00:58Another place President Musk and I disagree is that bots assist humans, they don't replace
01:05them.
01:06People, both emergency responders and FEMA professionals, they're at the heart of our
01:10disaster response work across the country.
01:14But we know that President Musk doesn't believe people are at the heart of our disaster response
01:17work.
01:18He actually believes that machines can work better without the human messiness of debate,
01:23of oversight, of history, of reasoning, you know, some of the same building blocks that
01:29create democracy, I might point out.
01:32So it's deeply frustrating for me to see my colleagues go along with Musk's unmanned worldview,
01:39robbing first responders of the basic resources they need to do their jobs, dismantling FEMA,
01:45and also allowing DHS to withhold the funds that this House appropriated, which by the
01:50way is a violation of federal law, and a clear failure of the majority to provide appropriate
01:56oversight, the job that we have in this committee.
01:59But here we are.
02:01So I want to get into the questions.
02:03Chief Federman, yes or no, is it helpful to first responders like our firefighters when
02:11federal agencies like FEMA cannot provide grants for local cities, counties, and other
02:17communities to prepare for and attend to natural disasters?
02:21Yes or no?
02:22Congresswoman Ramirez, no, it is not helpful.
02:27And Chief Federman, I have another question for you, yes or no.
02:29Does it help firefighters when the federal government guts initiatives for research and
02:35new technologies that assist first responders in doing their jobs safer and more effectively?
02:41No, it is not, ma'am.
02:44Pivoting slightly, we know that some of these new technologies and bots that Elon loves
02:48so much have some bias and some privacy problems, just like him.
02:53In 2024, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, found drones can support law enforcement.
03:00However, the use of those technologies in public spaces, where a warrant is not necessarily
03:05required prior to use, has led us with concerns about how law enforcement is ensuring that
03:11we're protecting civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.
03:15Given that President Musk and Trump and his loyal follower, Noam, have gutted the Civil
03:20Rights and Civil Liberties, CRCL, division at DHS, which was tasked with preventing civil
03:28rights and liberty violations in the agency's work, I want to ask all of our witnesses here,
03:35how do your programs either offer capabilities or take steps to protect sensitive information
03:42acquired by the use of drones?
03:44And I'll start with Mr. Offerell.
03:47Yes, thank you.
03:51So I think when we develop these technologies, we definitely want to make sure that the information
03:56is safeguarded.
03:57I think, moreover, one step that we're taking, specifically at RASPIT, is coordinating with
04:04the Ole Miss Law Program.
04:05So there's a drone and space law program I had an opportunity to guest lecture last Tuesday.
04:12And one of the key initiatives that we were discussing was drone privacy, drone usage,
04:17admissibility in courts, as well as the safeguarding on that data.
04:21So one thing that we're really focused on is not only the enabling capability, the mitigating
04:28on the counter and the threat, but also how do you employ it in a way as best to protect
04:32civil liberties for those operators.
04:38Mr. Farrar, I want to get to the rest of you, so you have like five or seven seconds.
04:41But Dr. Ledbetter.
04:42Yes, ma'am.
04:46Our army is our customer.
04:48We're bound by their cyber security and data requirements, and we're in compliance with
04:52them.
04:54Mr. Hendricks.
04:55Yeah, no social...
04:56Reveal an existing data once a determination is made or the plans for research to continue,
05:01I mean for search and rescue to continue to eliminate.
05:05And Chief Fetterman.
05:06The fire service goes to great lengths to protect private information, but our priority
05:11is life safety.
05:13We focus on life safety and saving lives and property.
05:17And with that, I yield back.