During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) called for a vote to subpoena Elon Musk over DOGE's possible privacy violations.
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00:00Thank you very much. Good morning, Madam Chair, and again, thank you for calling this hearing on the use of artificial intelligence in our government.
00:08Optimizing the federal government's use of technology has long been a bipartisan priority of this committee.
00:14Indeed, as you know, Madam Chair, our late colleague and friend, Jerry Conley, was a steadfast champion for using modern technology to improve the delivery of government services, strengthen oversight, and enhance public trust.
00:28We continue to fight his fight on this and so many other critical challenges facing our government.
00:34We cannot sit here, however, and have the traditional bipartisan conversation about federal IT modernization without acknowledging the fact that the Trump administration, Elon Musk, and Doge are leading technology initiatives that threaten the privacy and security of all Americans and undermine our government and the vital services it provides to red states and blue states.
00:58Musk may say he has stepped away from his role in the federal government, but his recklessness will continue to have devastating consequences for America for years, possibly decades to come.
01:10Today, we'll work to better understand the disaster and danger the Trump administration has created by turning our government over to his biggest campaign donor and people who are more interested in self-enrichment than public service.
01:23Since President Trump's inauguration, he has given Elon Musk free reign to terrorize our civil servants and drive more than 275,000 federal employees from their jobs serving the American people.
01:36His Doge team has done this so capriciously that they have had to go back to people that they originally fired and beg them to return to their jobs, serving our veterans, maintaining our nuclear stockpile, and fighting bird flu.
01:50At the Social Security Administration, whistleblowers have told us that the agency has lost so many critical information technology and support staff that very few of the remaining workers even know how to handle errors or alerts in their computer systems.
02:05This could mean missed checks and millions of seniors and people with disabilities losing access to their financial lifeline.
02:11While they purged the federal government of expertise, Elon Musk and Doge reportedly fed sensitive government data, including America's private personal information, into unvetted and unaccountable AI software.
02:25They also reportedly deployed Musk's own generative AI chatbot called Grok to consume government data and assist with sensitive government decisions.
02:36Grok has even been deployed onto systems at the Department of Homeland Security, despite the fact that it has not been approved for use.
02:44Musk has been operating without any oversight whatsoever while posing a very real risk of violating security and privacy laws, accessing confidential information about his competitors,
02:55and using valuable federal databases to turbocharge his own AI system, which would mean more money and more power for Mr. Musk.
03:03The American people deserve answers.
03:07Musk and Doge have put the most personal data of every American at risk.
03:11Cybersecurity experts like Mr. Schneier, who is here with us today, are sounding the alarm that the holes Doge has created in our national cybersecurity system are gaping and pervasive.
03:24And now, in this horrifying, insecure environment, the Trump administration wants to centralize all of America's data into one massive database,
03:34which would allow full-spectrum surveillance of American citizens, making it even easier for bad actors to hack.
03:42And, of course, they're contracted with a big private tech company owned by one of President Trump's billionaire supporters to do just that.
03:50Four months ago, Democrats moved to subpoena Elon Musk to provide public testimony to this committee.
03:56At that time, our Republican colleagues complained that their constituents were calling their offices and showing up to town halls to yell at them about Musk.
04:04While American concerns have only deepened since then, from his erratic purge of the federal workforce to his exploitation of sensitive taxpayer data to the cybersecurity nightmare he's created
04:16and the horrifying surveillance state we fear, Musk has put the American people into a position where they demand answers from Elon Musk.
04:27I believe, too, that my Republican colleagues should have had some questions of their own for Mr. Musk.
04:33Recent allegations have left Americans wondering if he was potentially under the influence of drugs while at the very heart of the Trump administration's most consequential and sensitive decisions.
04:43It is worth investigating whether one of President Trump's most influential advisors was under the influence of heavy drugs while upending hundreds of thousands of American lives,
04:53breaking government services beyond repair, breaking government services beyond repair, and handing out death sentences for hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world
05:01who relied on American foreign aid and medical care for survival, most of whom were children.
05:07If this doesn't move my Republican colleagues, maybe they just want to hear from Musk on why he called their bill to cut Medicaid and give tax breaks to billionaires.
05:18This is Elon Musk's words, a disgusting abomination, and, quote, massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill,
05:28or why he spent the last 24 hours leveraging his social media to, quote, kill the bill.
05:34Or maybe they want to know why Musk has said that his next round of firings might be targeted at them,
05:41Republican politicians who have not toed the line on Musk's priorities.
05:45Regardless of your motivations, Democrats and Republicans alike simply cannot allow Elon Musk to escape accountability for his actions.
05:54He's dismantled our government, endangered Americans, and weaponized public service for his own financial gain.
06:00I ask my Republican colleagues, let's work together on this.
06:04Let's support oversight that Democrats today in moving that this committee subpoena Elon Musk to answer for his actions.
06:12All of us deserve answers on behalf of the American people.
06:16So, Madam Chair, therefore, pursuant to Clause 2K6 of House Rule 11,
06:22I move that we subpoena this committee, Republican and Democrat, subpoena Elon Musk to testify before this committee.
06:34Second the motion.
06:35We'll suspend for a moment.