During a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced a bill to cancel government contracts awarded to Elon Musk if a court found that he enriched himself through his activities at DOGE.
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00:01For what purpose does Mr. Kassar seek recognition again?
00:05I seek recognition on my amendment number four at the desk.
00:09Will the clerk please distribute? Will the clerk please report?
00:12Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Reconciliation Committee
00:17provided for reconciliation pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 14 offered by Mr. Kassar of Texas.
00:21Without objection, the amendment is considered as read. I reserve a point of order.
00:24The gentleman from Texas is recognized for five minutes to complain of this amendment.
00:27Mr. Chairman.
00:29The Republicans on this committee just voted no on canceling Elon Musk contracts
00:35if he violates the law and stays past 130 days.
00:39The Republicans on this committee just voted no on Mr. Frost's amendment
00:43that would require the President of the United States to follow U.S. Supreme Court orders.
00:48At some point, we've got to have some shame on this committee.
00:54So my amendment, I would hope my Republican colleagues would vote for it,
00:57is that if a court or the federal government finds that Mr. Musk abused his power to enrich himself here over the last few months,
01:07then we would cancel his contract.
01:09If a court finds that the richest man on earth went in, used the federal books, scraped people's data,
01:17steered contracts to himself, then we should maybe stop sending him $8 million a day and save the American taxpayer $3 billion.
01:27That not just Democrats, but conservatives, progressives, independents, all across the country want to see us save some money.
01:35By saying these corporate grifters that use the government to enrich themselves, they should get cut off.
01:40And look, there's a House Republican majority today, but there could be a Democratic majority tomorrow, or at least in under two years.
01:48And when we are sitting on this committee, and if we get a chance to have the subpoena power and look into this,
01:53and find out that Elon Musk has used his power to enrich himself,
01:58the consequences could actually be much greater than just having his contracts cut off.
02:02So I ask my Republican colleagues, I know you voted no on Mr. Frost's amendments to say the President should follow the U.S. Supreme Court.
02:10I know you just voted no on my amendment that said if Mr. Musk stays over the 130 days, he should have his contracts canceled.
02:17At a minimum, I would ask that you vote for this amendment that says if Musk breaks the laws,
02:23if he says that he, if we find out from a court or from the federal government that he steered these contracts to himself,
02:30then we shouldn't keep on rewarding him with billions in taxpayer dollars.
02:34That's the way we should be saving the American taxpayer money,
02:37not by kicking kids off of Medicaid or pulling school meals or firing veterans.
02:42I yield back, Mr. Chairman, and I would hope that at least one Republican member of Congress would vote to say
02:48we will hold Mr. Musk accountable if he stays past the 130-day limit.
02:52We'll hold Mr. Musk accountable if a court finds that he's been funneling money to himself.
02:58The news is out that he's seeking this multi-billion dollar contract for Trump's Golden Dome.
03:04The word is out that he's out there messing with the FAA, trying to get his Starlink contracts at the FAA.
03:10The word is out that he tried to get a $400 million contract just recently for Tesla at the State Department.
03:17And then he got caught doing it. So, look, you may not think it's going to come out today, but it will come out eventually.
03:24And it would have been better if you voted yes to say we're going to cut off Musk's contracts if he breaks the law,
03:29if he breaks the 130-day rule, if he breaks conflicts of interest, if he keeps on using his position to enrich himself.
03:35I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
03:37Any other members seek recognition? Ms. Crockett?
03:42Yeah, I would say that Mr. Casar has laid this out really plainly.
03:47You know, there used to be a time in which one of the mottos of the Republican Party was this idea that y'all were the party of law and order.
03:56And I really think that it's very clear that it's anything but when we have amendments that literally just say follow the law.
04:04I mean, right now, one of the things that we hear over and over and over about why it makes sense to throw people out of this country without any due process is because you are just saying that they broke the law.
04:17Not that they had an opportunity to defend, not that we have any proof that they broke the law, but your word is enough to literally exile somebody and send them to a prison where they are doing God knows what.
04:30But if we have a court that is found that this man has broken the law, it would be wise if you really believe in law and order to say that we will not continue to enrich the richest person in the world with our tax dollars, especially when we're talking about the fact that we're trying to find savings when we know for sure that he has broken the law.
04:54I appreciate Mr. Kassar, because this isn't about partisanship. This is about right versus wrong. And honestly, it's just about good old common sense.
05:02I think that's the one thing the American people are wishing that we had right now in government is just a little bit of common sense.
05:09And it only makes sense that we would not continue to send somebody $8 million a day or even more money than that, knowing that they literally are breaking the laws that we, that we, the laws that we wrote.
05:24I'll yield.
05:26Does any other members seek recognition?
05:28Seeing none.