At his town hall event in Estero, Florida, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) dealt with a very angry crowd after a question was asked about oversight of Elon Musk.
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00:00Susan Sutton from Fort Myers. Susan?
00:03Susan. Oh, hey Susan, how you doing?
00:06Alright, Susan, as a member of the Oversight Committee,
00:10what oversights are you imposing on Elon Musk and Josh?
00:14Great question.
00:30I guess they like that question.
00:35So, a couple things.
00:37First and foremost, when it comes to what Elon Musk is doing,
00:42everything that he does right now is in the auspices of being a special employee
00:47under the presidency of Donald Trump.
00:50So, how this works is the president is allowed to have special employees.
00:54Every president has basically had these special employees.
00:57They're tasked with specific duties, specific responsibilities.
01:01Some of them have been tasked with going overseas, trying to negotiate climate policy.
01:06That was John Kerry, when he was the climate czar under President Biden.
01:10In this instance, Elon Musk is essentially the head of the Doge
01:14that Donald Trump has set up in his administration.
01:17In terms of oversight from Congress, that's much more of an appropriations aspect.
01:22What Doge is doing right now is they're going through every agency
01:26and they're examining any contracts or any lack of efficiencies in spending federal dollars.
01:32This is something that I'm going to answer you.
01:36I'm not going to answer you, but if you don't know, it's okay, but I just want to answer you.
01:41Are you going to allow me to answer your question?
01:44Okay. So, like I said, what they are doing is under the directions of the President of the United States.
01:52If you're going to talk about what oversight is doing, we actually have to let the Doge Committee,
01:59the Doge Department, actually finish its work.
02:02What they are examining right now is inefficiency in the federal system.
02:06This is something that President Obama wanted to do when President Obama was elected President of the United States.
02:11You can do it if you want to, but those are the facts.
02:16Because if you go back to time, back to 2009, then President Obama famously said that he wanted to examine efficiencies
02:24or lack thereof in the federal government.
02:26Elon Musk is doing the exact same thing.
02:30He's doing the same thing.
02:32So, if you want to ask what the oversight committee is doing, the oversight committee is doing the responsible thing.
02:41We are letting Doge complete its work.
02:43Most of the budget cuts that Doge will present have to go through the appropriations process.
02:49And so when it goes through the appropriations committee, any adjustments that are made to federal spending will occur there,
02:55and they will get an upper downfall in the appropriations committee first, and then on the floor of the House,
03:00also on the floor of the Senate.
03:01That is the process.
03:11Now, it is actually clear that when the President, who is a unitary executive under our system of government,
03:19they are allowed to hire who they want to work in the federal government.
03:24And so, I find it interesting that people who are upset about Elon right now were not upset,
03:29and I brought it up earlier, when John Kerry was going around the planet trying to negotiate climate change with us.
03:37But that's what John Kerry was charged to do when he was made climate czar,
03:42which is a special employee under the Biden administration.
03:46But that is, Elon Musk is now examining federal spending in our government as it exists today.
03:53Last thing I would bring it to everybody.
03:55All in the comments.
03:57Everybody celebrate them.
03:59Everybody celebrate them.
04:00Everybody celebrate them.
04:01Here's the last thing.
04:03There is a report that comes out every single year.
04:06This is the GAO report.
04:08The GAO report, every single year, has said that the federal government wastes more than $250 billion per year.
04:16$250 billion.
04:18Over the last 20 years, the federal government has wasted $3 trillion.
04:23I believe that it is in the interest of the people of Southwest Florida and the United States to examine all inefficiencies in the federal government.
04:33Unless you have $3 trillion.
04:34Unless you have $3 trillion.
04:35I don't know.
04:36I don't know.
04:37I don't know.
04:38If you're concerned that Elon Musk and his team are going through agencies and canceling contracts that are inefficient,
04:51actually, and this is a great point, I'm glad you said that on your own.
04:56Because when appropriations language is written under federal law today, Congress has given discretion to the secretaries of the various cabinet agencies.
05:06So what the Doge is actually doing is they are working with cabinet-level secretaries who have all been confirmed by the United States and Senate.
05:13They bring their findings to that secretary, and then that secretary is the one who is making the decisions.
05:19Because the authority has been given to the cabinet-level secretaries by Congress.
05:25You may not like it, but that's the way the law is written.
05:29So I will tell you.
05:31I will tell you.
05:32As a member of Congress, I actually believe that Congress should not give discretion to the federal agencies, no matter who's president.
05:41And Congress should actually prescribe how money is spent in the federal government.
05:46But Congress has been derelict in its duty and has allowed money to go to the federal branch, the executive branch, excuse me, and they have given full discretion to the executive branch, which goes around members of Congress and goes around constituencies in the United States of America.
06:10If you want to, the last thing I will tell you is, now here is where a little bit, with a little bit, a little bit, a little bit of public perception.
06:20If you examine broad-based polling on government efficiencies, it is popular with the American people.
06:29People want efficiencies in the federal government.
06:33And a lot of you, you're not being intellectually honest if you don't want to have a thorough examination of waste or abuse in the federal level.
06:43You're not being out of trust in your house.
06:46For those in the room, for those in the room who may be upset, for those in the room who may be upset about Doge, are you going to be upset when Doge gets to the Department of Defense?
06:59Are you going to be upset when they get to the Department of Defense?
07:04I think that this is where I'm going to be doing this.
07:07Is it not being intellectually honest?
07:09Because I think that it's lacking this correctly.
07:11Is it not being intellectually honest?
07:12Because I think that it's not being intellectually honest.
07:18Every decision that the Doge Is not even a decision.
07:20Every recommendation that Doge makes is approved by cabinet level secretaries who have been confirmed by the United States Senate.
07:31That's what we're in the process for us.
07:37Before we go to the next question,
07:39I want to reiterate because the question is oversight.
07:41What do we do?
07:43On the Oversight Committee, we have to actually observe those do its work first.
07:48They're in the process of doing that.
07:50That's number one.
07:51Number two, the true accountability,
07:53if that's what you truly believe is necessary,
07:55the true accountability for those will be found in the appropriations process.
07:59Because at that point, any recommendations that Bill has made to cabinet-level secretaries
08:04will be reflected in budgetary requests.
08:07And they will get an up or down vote.
08:09And they will get an up or down vote in the appropriations process.
08:14Okay, there you go.
08:15I'm going to have to ask you the question.
08:17It's all right.
08:18I got it.
08:19So, let's go.