The top oversight Democrat in the Senate and five colleagues are asking billionaire Elon Musk and his associates with the Department of Government Efficiency to “immediately pause their work within all federal agencies.”
The letter, first shared with Nextgov/FCW, is one of many oversight efforts from Democrats on Capitol Hill concerned about Musk’s actions.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., sent the letter to the White House on Friday with Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and John Fetterman, D-Pa.
They ask White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Counsel David Warrington for information on DOGE’s setup, employees and work. They want the billionaire businessman to pause his activities across various agencies until they get answers.
Since Trump took office and tapped Musk to cut government costs, workforce and regulations, Musk and his associates in the Department of Government Efficiency have fanned across agencies, accessing government systems and data. Musk also appears to have shaped the administration’s efforts to push federal workers to leave their jobs.
Musk and the administration are also attempting to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development without the involvement of Congress, as required by law.
Some Democrats are worried about the potential implications of DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, given Trump’s new Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought’s record of claims that the executive branch doesn’t have to spend funds appropriated by Congress, as required by law.
“Alarming reports have indicated that Mr. Musk, and officials associated with Mr. Musk… may have engaged in activity which may be illegal or unconstitutional,” the senators write. “Mr. Musk and individuals associated … may be in violation of several privacy, national security, and ethics laws.”
The senators want more information on Musk’s role and his adherence to ethics and financial disclosure requirements, as well as details about people reporting to Musk and their work, including whether they’ve accessed sensitive, personally identifiable information.
The White House says that Musk is working as a special government employee, a type of time-limited position, although experts have been skeptical that Musk is staying in the bounds of that position and called his conflicts of interests as a businessman with billions bound up in government contracts “stupendous.”
Musk and his associates have security clearances, the White House says, although a senior House Democrat has raised alarm bells about the White House counsel being able to give clearances “without appropriate vetting” under a day one Trump memo.
A White House official told Nextgov/FCW today that “as an unpaid Special Government Employee who is not a commissioned officer, Elon will file a confidential financial disclosure report.”
Musk got an ethics briefing this week “and other DOGE staff will/have received the same treatment,” they said.
A White House official previously sent the following statement to Nextgov/FCW about DOGE and its work: “The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change. While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary.”
“This is our ONE CHANCE to return POWER to the PEOPLE from an unelected BUREAUcracy back to DEMOcracy!!” Musk wrote of DOGE in a X social media post about pushback from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
No Republicans signed onto the letter. They hold the majority in the Senate and House. Although at least one Republican has acknowledged that Musk’s actions may be unconstitutional, others are expressing support for DOGE, as NOTUS has reported.
“Since day one, I have been all in on DOGE’s efforts to cut government waste,” Peters’ Republican counterpart — Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky. — told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. “I’m pleased to see President Trump and DOGE begin to take the necessary steps to eliminate these wasteful programs and grants.”
“The system of government was based on a series of constraints that would prevent bad things from happening … and that system is falling apart now,” Donald Moynihan, public policy professor at the University of Michigan, previously told Nextgov/FCW. “What’s going to be left then are the external checks, so whether Congress or the courts get their act together.”
“This is a test of how much power we think the president has and whether that power goes beyond what the Constitution and the law says,” he said.
