Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said there is worry among Americans that Elon Musk is causing a constitutional crisis amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to several government agencies.
“The American people feel very much we’re in a constitutional crisis,” Tlaib said in a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. “They cannot understand, you know, this billionaire … And to think that he can just walk in, to an agency that I can tell you, for many of my families, from Social Security, Medicare, I mean, it is literally part of how they survive in our country.”
In recent weeks, Musk, the leader of DOGE, has dispatched staff to multiple agencies and has been able to access databases at the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department.
David Lebryk, a top Treasury Department nonpolitical career official, retired at the end of last week after butting heads with Musk allies on government payment systems, a source previously told The Hill.
Lebryk’s retirement followed a clash over a request from DOGE for access to a payment system used by Treasury officials to disburse funds.
“One [of] the things that I continue to talk to our ranking member about, and thinking about even the folks that voted for the President [and] others, if I was to ask the American people ‘Do you think Elon Musk cares about you?’” Tlaib said.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said recently that Democrats have appeared “surprised and flat footed” after actions taken by Musk and DOGE to change the federal government.
“I’m going to keep hitting this: the Democrats are THE ONLY political opposition. They had three months to prepare for these acts. And they seem surprised and flat footed,” the former House member said in a post on the social platform X Wednesday.
The Hill has reached out to DOGE and the White House for comment.
