During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke about the Department of Government Efficiency.
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00:00Well, Madam President, it looks like my timing is exquisite because I came down here to talk
00:08about something that I think has sort of fallen off the radar screen in here in recent weeks,
00:14and that is the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, one of the most important
00:19developments that I think we've seen with the advent of President Trump's ascension to the
00:26Office of President. It's amazing to me to listen to my Democratic colleagues speak, talking like
00:35chicken little, the sky is falling. I heard the senator from Rhode Island suggest that we are
00:43trying to privatize Social Security. There's no one, absolutely no one, suggesting that. This is
00:52what's called a straw man. You erect a phony argument, and you knock it down, and you claim
00:59victory. The truth is that Mr. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency should be
01:07applauded for their efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. And you would think taxpayers,
01:14the same taxpayers our colleagues represent in their states, would applaud this effort.
01:23I can't think of a more difficult but important goal than helping the government find efficiencies
01:29and reduce spending. Because if we reduce spending, two things happen. Either we've reduced the taxes
01:36that are taken from the hardworking families that produce the revenue by which government operates,
01:42or we eliminate or reduce the amount of debt that the federal government accrues, which right
01:50now is at an unsustainable level. To me, both of those things are positive. Restricting or limiting
01:59the amount of money that comes from the taxpayer, or, and maybe it's and, reducing the government
02:09debt. The problem of runaway spending by the government, of course, is not a new one,
02:16but it's been getting increasingly worse, particularly during the last four years of the Biden
02:21administration. The truth is, it's taken us a long time to get to $37 trillion in debt, but it's now
02:29reached the point of unsustainability. We are spending more money on interest on the national
02:35debt than we are on defense in an increasingly dangerous world. That alone is unsustainable.
02:45But Ronald Reagan described our spending problem back in 1984 when he said these famous words. He
02:54said, we could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors,
03:02drunken sailors, which just about sums it up. For somebody like Elon Musk, who is reportedly one of the
03:11most wealthy, maybe the most wealthy person on the planet, to spend his time and effort and to assemble
03:19a team like he has to work in the government, Department of Government Efficiency, is a huge public
03:27service. And I'm grateful to Elon Musk, who's volunteered his time as well as recruiting others
03:34to help the United States government deal with its spending addiction and to try to help it get clean,
03:42certainly much worse than a drunken sailor. This morning, I had a chance to meet with a gentleman,
03:49Joe Gebbia, who's the former CEO of Airbnb, and who is volunteering his time because he sees this as an
04:00unprecedented opportunity to get at problems that the government historically has been unable to deal
04:07with. And that is the incredible rise and increase in government spending, the inefficiency, the waste of
04:15taxpayer funds, and the national debt. So trying to getting a team like this with very accomplished
04:23entrepreneurs and people who've been very successful in the private sector come in and try to help us
04:30figure out how to eliminate waste and fraud and abuse strikes me as an act of patriotism and public service.
04:37And I know we've heard the saying that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Back home in Texas,
04:47Governor Abbott and the Texas legislature have also followed dozens of other states in paying a high
04:54compliment to the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk by proposing a doge-like task force
05:01at the state level. I'm sure even in a state as efficiently run with as low a taxes as Texas,
05:08that you can find inefficiency that can be and should be rooted out. Governor Abbott recently signed the
05:16bill, the first bill of this year's legislative session, into law to establish the Texas Regulatory
05:22Efficiency Office modeled after Doge. And while some states are more fiscally responsible than others,
05:32state governments, as I said, are not immune from spending taxpayer money on outdated or inefficient
05:38programs. Texas is one of the most efficient. That shouldn't surprise anyone. We have the fourth
05:45lowest state taxes in the country, and we've been ranked one of the lowest spending states in terms
05:52of state spending per capita. I look forward to seeing the great work being done down in Austin
05:59by the Texas Doge and what they can do to try to help make state government more efficient. And I know
06:06I join many of them in thanking Elon and his team at Doge for the inspiration and what he has brought
06:15down to our state. Of course, Elon's status within the federal government is that of what's called a
06:22special government employee. That means it's for a period of time, 130 days in this case. And with
06:30that date approaching soon, Mr. Musk indicates he plans to wrap up his work. But I must emphasize that
06:38the work of Doge must go on. The task of improving government efficiency is one that will never be
06:46finished. And I believe that Elon Musk and his team at Doge have made monumental progress in just a few
06:53short months. And let me give you a few examples. The Department of the Treasury started its first
07:01automated payment verification system at the recommendation of Doge. So far, more than 300 million
07:09dollars has been identified in improper payment requests. Over at the Center for Medicare Services,
07:17the government has launched a fraud detection operation center. And one week ago today,
07:25CMS announced they suspended suspected fraudulent payments to 33 different providers.
07:32One such fraudulent payment was for a patient that died two decades ago. It reminds me of some of the
07:40people on the Social Security rolls that Doge has also found, some well in excess of 100 years old,
07:48if they exist at all. Well, another example included billing more than two million dollars in genetic
07:55testing for patients that never actually received the test. These are just a few examples of
08:02the gross fraud and inefficiencies that happen throughout the federal government. And I'm sure it's just
08:08the tip of the iceberg. But these technical payment glitches are just scratching the surface. Doge's
08:17findings and recommendations have also eliminated some of the most egregious examples of fraud.
08:24The Department of Justice, in partnership with Doge, discovered and charged an Iraqi man for
08:30illegally voting in a U.S. election. Now, we should know, I think everybody does know, that foreign
08:36nationals, non-citizens, are not eligible to vote in U.S. elections. That is a privilege reserved for
08:44citizens of the United States. Instances of foreign nationals voting in our elections threaten the bedrock
08:50of our democratic republic. All of us should be thankful to the Department of Justice, Attorney General
08:57Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Doge, that they've identified and eliminated this violation of the
09:05sanctity of our election process. The Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture are working to
09:12make sure that illegal immigrants are not receiving federal benefits that they are not authorized to
09:18receive, such as unemployment insurance or SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps.
09:25These programs are meant to protect vulnerable Americans, not to reward illegal immigrants
09:32for breaking our laws. From eliminating improper payments to safeguarding our elections,
09:39I believe we owe Mr. Musk a debt of gratitude for helping identify these problems, again, just the tip of the iceberg,
09:48and for eliminating these wasteful use of hard-earned tax dollars. In order to consolidate the gains that
09:57Doge has made, I support Congress and the administration working together to codify these cost-cutting measures
10:05through rescissions. That's the official process by which we actually save the money. This will be important for a few
10:12different reasons. Number one, it will allow us to use the savings that Doge is identifying in order to offset
10:20the costs of the tax bill that we are currently considering, allowing us to send even more money back
10:26to the American people. Any money we can save from wasteful spending obviously can be sent back or kept
10:35by the people who earn it in the first place, which are hard-working American families. So I'm very happy to
10:42hear the White House indicate that they planned on sending us a rescissions package very soon. And I would
10:48recommend, personally, that they send a rescissions package on a monthly basis. I'm going to be very
10:56interested to see how our Democratic colleagues react to some of these sensible spending cuts or
11:02rescissions. So far, what they've done is they've been in complete opposition to anything and everything
11:08that the Trump administration has proposed, including the Department of Government Efficiency.
11:15I don't think it helps their credibility when some of the most egregious expenditures and waste of taxpayer
11:21money is pointed out. And they complained about the person who's identified it and made it possible
11:27maybe to save that money or to return it to the taxpayers from whom it came in the first place.
11:36As officials at the Office of Management and Budget consider their options moving forward,
11:41I hope they know that I will be a willing and eager partner in their efforts.
11:45Madam President, I yield the floor.